The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations will “reassess” its policy on Mexico and has appointed a committee “to make appropriate recommendations in the near future,” the Conference said today. The announcement, which followed a full meeting yesterday of the organization’s 32 constituent members, declared:
“The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations notes an encouraging series of actions recently taken by the government of Mexico in its relationship with the Jewish people. In the light of these developments, a special committee has been appointed to reassess the Presidents Conference policy and to make appropriate recommendations in the near future.”
While the statement did not specify what were the “encouraging series of actions,” they were believed to refer to the Mexican government’s decision to absent itself from two votes of UN specialized agencies for the anti-Zionist resolution at meetings last month. One was a meeting of UNESCO in Paris and the other a meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal.
Another such action was understood to be current negotiations between Mexico and Israel for landing rights for El Al in Mexico which, if successful, will mark the Israeli international airline’s first entry into the Latin American air travel market.
Last month, following Mexico’s affirmative vote at the United Nations ratifying the anti-Zionist resolution adopted by the International Women’s Year conference at Mexico City in June, the Conference issued a statement asserting that “we are deeply disturbed by the failure of Mexico’s representative in her vote and statement at the United Nations to make clear the position conveyed personally to American Jewish leadership by the President of Mexico–namely, that Zionism is incompatible with racism and cannot in any way be equated with it, and that the Jewish people has the right to a national homeland in Israel.”
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