Mrs. Margaret McKay, the controversial pro-Arab Labor Member of Parliament from Clapham, has pledged that the new Arab center she is opening in London will be used for cultural and propaganda purposes and will be closed to Arab commando groups. Mrs. McKay, presently touring the Arab countries to raise funds for the Arab cause against Israel, had reportedly described her new center as a “commando outpost.”
That description aroused a storm of protests here, especially in view of recent Arab terrorist bombings of Israeli and Jewish property in London and on the continent. According to Daily Telegraph correspondent John Bulloch, who talked to Mrs. McKay in Kuwait, she said she had meant “truth commandos” whose weapons are words. Mrs. McKay claims to be an honorary member of El Fatah, the Palestinian guerrilla organization. Mr. Bulloch said she told him that she was presented with an El Fatah badge and dagger when she visited one of its encampments in Jordan last year. “They made me an honorary commando,” she reportedly said, “but that does not mean they will be welcome at the London center. I am dealing only with Arab governments and no unofficial organizations will be allowed.”
Mrs. McKay, a Labor Party member since 1928, drew the wrath of her party last month when she told a New York audience that Zionist Jewish Labor MPs were exerting pressure on Prime Minister Harold Wilson to take a pro-Israel stand.
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