Rejection front terrorists brought the Middle East and its bloody struggles back to the streets of Paris today for the second time in a week when they killed Ezzedine Kalak, the local representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Kalak was cut down by 16 bullets in the hall of his office in the Arab League building in central Paris while his deputy, Adnan Hammod died of wounds after both his legs were blown off by a grenade.
The attack was by a Jordanian and an Algerian, both of whom were arrested by police, though the Algerian tried to take hostages first in the Arab League building. The attack follows that on Monday by pro-Fatah terrorists who stormed the Iraqi Embassy building, in a new blow in the war fought between Palestinian factions. Two other PLO men were wounded in today’s attack which took place shortly after the Arab League offices opened.
The Jordanian tried to flee from the building but was wrestled to the ground by police outside while Arab League security guards later overpowered the second man who was seriously beaten and kicked before being turned over the police.
KALAK WAS A HARDLINER
There was no immediate indication who would replace Kalak, who was himself the replacement for Mahmoud Hamchari who died in December, 1972 when a sophisticated time bomb blew up near his telephone when he went to answer it.
Kalak was a hardliner, close to rejection front ideas, but he nevertheless supported the mainline PLO policies and was a personal friend of PLO chief Yasir Arafat. Kalak was an essential contact for French and foreign journalists based here, but it could not be said that he had befriended many, mostly because of his aggressive style and utter bad faith.
He was of the school of Arab thought for which everything wrong under the sun–from the weather to the political situation–was always the fault of Israel. Even in the clearest of cases of terror attacks in Israel or around the world, his line was that the Israelis were either manipulating those responsible or that they had themselves carried out the killings to seek world sympathy.
Probably most embarrassed of all will be the French government, which will now come under heavier pressure than ever to curb the settling of Arab vendettas in the capital’s streets.
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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.
