The Labor Party has informed the Socialist International that it will “suspend its activities” within the International if Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasir Arafat is invited to attend a session. The message was conveyed today to former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, president of the Socialist International by Labor MK Micha Harish in Strasbourg.
Harish told an Israel Radio Interviewer that there was no definite proposal for Arafat to be invited to a Socialist International session but there was “such a danger.” The idea evolved from Arafat’s recent meeting with Brandt and Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky in Vienna. Harish said Brandt regretted “that the Israel Labor Party was hurt” by the Vienna meeting and reiterated his own unchanging friendship and support for Israel.
But the Labor MK refused to divulge the contents of Brandt’s report of the meeting with Arafat. When asked if Arafat had shown any shift in his traditional stand, as Brandt intimated after the Vienna meeting, Harish said he would report back to Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres before making any public pronouncement. He said that was agreed between himself and Brandt.
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