Kollek Charges Mrs. Meir, Pincus Appeasing Black Panthers

Mayor Teddy Kollek today accused Premier Golda Meir and Jewish Agency chairman Louis Pincus of, in effect, bending over backwards to appease the militant Black Panthers after having ignored for years the problems of poverty that gave rise to Panther agitation. Kollek specifically disapproved of the interviews Mrs. Meir and Pincus recently granted spokesmen for the disaffected Jerusalem slum youths. He said that when Panther leader Eddie Malka was asked to come for a job interview, the latter checked his calendar and said he couldn’t make it because he had to see several Knesset members and Cabinet ministers. Kollek assailed Pincus and the Jewish Agency leadership for allegedly ignoring Jerusalem’s social problems until now. “Mr. Pincus suddenly discovered that there are social problems in the city,” he said. “Two-and-a-half years ago when I spoke at the Conference on Human Needs, I said that social problems in the cities are most acute because of the contrast between wealth and poverty. The great brains of the Jewish Agency argued me out of court. Now Mr. Pincus thinks he will solve the problem by seeing a Panther,” Kollek said.