Percy Grieved by Terror Attack

Sen. Charles Percy (R. III.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said today he was deeply grieved by the senseless attack by terrorists in the historic Jewish neighborhood of Paris yesterday. He said “efforts must be doubled to prevent it from occuring again.”

Percy noted that two persons from Illinois were among the dead and two Illinoisians were among the wounded. Percy, who has long urged Israel to negotiate with the PLO, said that “not since World War II has there been such a bloody anti-Jewish attack in France. But in the past eight days, there have been three other attacks directed against the Jewish community in France. The French government must urgently take steps to insure that these acts cease and that those responsible be apprehended and brought to trial swiftly.”

The three other attacks Percy referred to were against a Jewish shop which imports goods from Israel, a bank formerly owned by Israeli shareholders and the Rothschild family, and a car owned by an Israeli diplomat. The Direct Action group claimed responsibility for these attacks.

Meanwhile, major American Jewish organizations condemned yesterday’s attack as another “brutal,” “cowardly” and “barbaric” attack by the same “killers” who have taken Jewish lives in countries throughout the world and especially in the Middle East.

It was also announced in New York that Julius Berman and Yehudo Hellman, chairman and executive vice chairman, respectively, of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, will meet with Claude Harel, Acting Ambassador of France in Washington, tomorrow to voice their “anguish and outrage” at “the most serious anti-Semitic attack in France since the end of World War II.” Jewish delegations will also be meeting with local French Consuls in major U.S. cities to express their dismay at recent events in France, it was reported.