After widespread protests the Australian government last night rejected a request by the Palestine Liberation Organization to send a five-man delegation to visit Australia. The Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, announced the government’s decision after a Cabinet meeting in Canberra had considered the storm of opposition raised by the proposal. Whitlam said he “regretted the need to ban the visit but the decision was necessary because “at this time it would exacerbate division in the community.”
The government’s refusal to issue visas to the PLO was a reversal of an earlier agreement to allow the PLO delegation to come here provided that its members passed a security check. One member of the delegation, Abdul Hamad, had already been rejected after being identified as a close associate of PLO operatives who planned the Munich massacre in 1972.
While the delegation was not coming at the invitation of the Australian government but on a “private” visit under the sponsorship of left-wing trade unions and student groups, the decision to accept an official PLO delegation was immediately attacked as a major shift in Australia’s proclaimed “even-handed and neutral” policy on the Middle East.
JEWISH COMMUNITY ENCOURAGED
Although Jewish communal organizations launched a major protest campaign against the proposed visit, the most telling opposition to the PLO came from within the ranks of the governing Labor Party itself. The president of the Australian Labor Party, Bob Hawke, described the PLO as “wanton killers” who would not be welcome here. Hawke is also president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions and has been an outspoken supporter of Israel in the past. He has often differed with Whitlam on Australia’s “evenhandedness” which has led to votes against Israel by Australia in the United Nations.
Hawke received widespread support from prominent labor leaders and influential sections of the media. The Conservative opposition parties attacked the government saying the PLO could not come to Australia until it was prepared to recognize Israel.
The strength and extent of the opposition to the PLO surprised Jewish leaders here who have been increasingly concerned at the erosion of support for Israel in the wider community. The acting president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, I.J. Leibler, said that the 70,000 Jews in Australia felt encouraged and gratified by the outpouring of support for Israel and the rejection of the PLO.
Faced with the threat of a split within the party and government ranks on the issue, and already in political difficulties because of its economic policies on inflation and unemployment, Whitlam’s Cabinet decided by a narrow margin not to go ahead with the visit in the present political climate. Left-wing groups, who had bitterly denounced the government, say they will renew the invitation to the PLO at a later date.
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