Philip Klutznick, president of the World Jewish Congress, has dissociated himself from the possibility that his WJC predecessor, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, may have a meeting with Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasir Arafat. Klutznick said he regretted he had to take the step. Klutznick, who made the statement in Chicago Friday and released by the WJC office here, noted that Goldmann had said that one of the reasons he resigned as WJC president was to be a free man and able “to meet with whom I want.”
Klutznick said that, as WJC president, he did not feel inhibited from meeting anyone he wanted to meet, but that “at this time when there is excessive heat, excitement and confusion over the PLO, Palestinians, and the pending issues in the Security Council, it is a highly questionable judgment for the former president of the World Zionist Organization as well as the World Jewish Congress to hold such meetings.”
Klutznick added that “any encouragement of the PLO program as enunciated by Arafat is in direct contravention of resolutions adopted by the plenary of the World Jewish Congress during Dr. Goldmann’s regime. I deeply regret the necessity of issuing this statement in the light of my long friendship with Dr. Goldmann which this cannot affect. But, for the sake of the organization which he helped found I must make our dissociation from this step abundantly clear.”
Goldmann said last Thursday in a telephone interview from West Germany and on Israel Radio that he had not received an invitation from Arafat but that if he did get one, he would accept it.
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