Peres Sidesteps Wjcongress Request That Israel Take an Official Position on Waldheim

Premier Shimon Peres sidestepped World Jewish Congress urgings Sunday that Israel take an official position on Kurt Waldheim, the former United Nations Secretary General accused by the WJC and others of having a Nazi past.

Waldheim, at this time, is a private citizen and nothing has yet been proven against him in a court of law, Peres told reporters shortly before leaving on a four-day visit to the United States. His remarks were seen as a means of heading off media pressure over the Waldheim issue while he is in the U.S. and an indirect rebuff to the WJC.

The WJC sent a letter to Peres over the weekend, calling on the Premier and his government to demand clarification from Waldheim, who is running for the Presidency of Austria in an election to be held May 5. The letter, sent also to Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Knesset Speaker Shlomo Hillel, was signed by Yitzhak Korn, executive chairman of the WJC’s Israel branch, and Avi Bekker, director-general.

“It is clear that Waldheim lied about, and deliberately concealed, details about his activities in the Balkans in the years 1942-43, during the deportation of the Jews of Salonika to Auschwitz and the mass murder of partisans, women and children in Yugoslavia,” the letter said.

U.S. LAWMAKERS CALL FOR INVESTIGATION

It added that Israel must take a position “especially in view of Waldheim’s special status (as Secretary General) when the UN was engaged in efforts to undermine Israel’s very existence.” The letter pointed out that members of the U.S. Congress have called for an investigation of Waldheim.

This was a reference to a resolution introduced on the Senate floor last week by Sen. Pete Wilson (R. Calif.) asking the Justice Department to examine documents submitted to it by the W to determine what part he had in Nazi war crimes. The resolution has the support of Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R. Kan.), according to the WJC, and will be acted upon when the Senate returns from Easter recess on April 8.

But Israel, for the time being, is officially noncommittal. “We are following the issue but will not react until there is definite proof,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Saturday. There has been strong unofficial reaction, however.

Two Knesset members, Chaika Grossman of Mapam and Shevach Weiss of Labor, both Holocaust survivors, spoke out strongly against Waldheim in interviews published over the weekend. Grossman said it would be a “mark of disgrace” if the Austrian people elect Waldheim. Weiss said it was unbelievable that a Nazi may be elected President of the country where Hitler was born. Both called for a Knesset debate on Waldheim. Justice Minister Moshe Nissim warned last week that Israel must “carefully consider” future relations with Waldheim should he become Austria’s President.

Meanwhile, the WJC’s secretary-general, Israel Singer, denied his organization was trying to influence the Austrian elections and defended it for raising the issue of Waldheim’s alleged Nazi past at this time.

“Whoever says it would have been nicer if I had waited with the truth until after Waldheim’s election is mistaken,” Singer said in an interview in the Vienna daily Die Presse. “I would have revealed it in any case, even if it meant offending the Federal President.”

The WJC’s charges against Waldheim were supported by Yugoslavian newspapers. The Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti reported Friday that Waldheim’s name appeared on a 1947 list of wanted war criminals published by the United Nations War Crimes Commission.