Farouk Kaddoumi, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Tunis-based Foreign Affairs Department, has called for the annihilation of Israel.
Israel’s ITIM News Agency quoted a radio address broadcast over a PLO station on Monday in which Kaddoumi, without mentioning Israel by name, said:
“There is a state which was established through historical force and it must be destroyed. This is the Palestinian way. They seized our land. The refugees must return to their land.”
Kaddoumi, a member of the PLO’s executive committee, added that the Palestinians would not “give up on one grain of sand of the Palestinian land.”
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who met with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in Gaza on Wednesday, lashed out against Kaddoumi’s remarks during a joint news conference following the meeting.
“We cannot accept that a senior man in the leadership of the PLO rises up and speaks against the fact of the existence of the State of Israel. It is unthinkable, and if repeated, it will be a serious obstacle to the progress” of negotiations with the PLO, Rabin said.
When Arafat and other members of the ruling Palestinian governing authority recently transferred their headquarters from Tunis to the Gaza Strip and the Jericho enclave in the West Bank, Kaddoumi remained in Tunis.
Under the terms of the declaration of principles signed by Israel and the PLO last September, the Palestinians are barred from establishing direct relations with foreign countries. As a result, the PLO has been maintaining its diplomatic office in Tunis.
For his part, Arafat attempted to play down the significance of Kaddoumi’s remarks.
“This is his point of view, not that of the PLO. I am looking into it now,” Arafat said.
On Thursday, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres phoned Arafat twice to insist that the PLO leader take a firmer stand against Kaddoumi’s remarks.
Peres stressed that Arafat would have to issue a public condemnation of the remarks.
Arafat agreed to publish a statement that Kaddoumi’s remarks were his own personal opinion and did not reflect the stand of the PLO.
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
