The Representative Council of French Jewry (CRIF) protested today against French policy in the Middle East and against Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson’s recent declarations which are perceived to have a strong anti-Israel bias. CRIF also called on the French government to close the PLO office in Paris and to expel its representative.
The CRIF, in a communique, charged that Cheysson’s statement last week in Cairo claiming “there is no Israeli peace plan” was tantamount to a denunciation of the Camp David agreements “which drew up a plan for the settlement of the Palestinian problem.” The communique noted that “the President of the Republic has on several occasions backed the (Camp David) agreements.”
The Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the CRIF protest but said that France had protested earlier this week against the PLO’s attack on a bus in Tel Aviv last Saturday in which 12 people were wounded. The Ministry spokesman said that the Paris representative of the PLO, Ibraham Suss, was called to the Ministry on Tuesday where officials lodged a formal protest and denunciation of the attack.
The Ministry spokesman said Suss was told that “France deplores all acts of violence, especially those committed against innocent civilians.”
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