Pressure mounted Tuesday on the U.S. State Department to prevent Yasir Arafat from entering the United States to take part in a Security Council debate on the current unrest in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The Security Council held closed consultations throughout the day, as plans for the formal debate awaited a U.S. decision on whether the Palestine Liberation Organization leader would be granted an entry visa.
But by evening, the United Nations had received no word from Washington about whether a visa would be granted.
The 22 Arab nations of the world body requested the Security Council meeting to discuss the violence in the administered territories in the aftermath of the shooting Sunday of seven Palestinian workers by a 21-year-old Israeli man who had been dishonorably discharged from the army.
The Arab states requested that Arafat be allowed to take part in the session.
The State Department contacted the PLO in Tunis early Tuesday and reportedly asked Arafat not to formally apply for a visa, according to sources here.
But by that time, the PLO had already requested a visa through the United Nations.
In Washington, however, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler implied Tuesday that the United States did not consider that request a formal application.
“We’re hearing reports that a formal application will be made,” Tutwiler told reporters at her noon briefing. “But as of this briefing, we have not received anything.”
SENATORS LOBBY ADMINISTRATION
A number of U.S. senators, including Connie Mack (R-Fla.) and Phil Gramm (R-Texas) contacted high-level administration officials to push for a denial of any application from Arafat.
An aide to Mack said that news of the Arafat request had come too quickly to mount a group lobbying effort. “I think senators are acting individually, because there has not be time for something organized,” the aide said.
There was similar pressure on the administration from organized American Jewry, as a number of groups contacted top administration officials to register their opposition to admitting Arafat.
The National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council “mobilized communities to express opposition to the issuance of the visa,” said Martin Raffel, the umbrella group’s Israel Task Force director.
Jewish organizations applauded the Reagan administration’s decision to deny Arafat a visa to address the U.N. General Assembly in 1988. The General Assembly then moved its session to the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva to hear the PLO chairman speak.
The Arab nations have said that they will press to move the Security Council session to Geneva if Arafat is again denied a visa.
“Granting a visa to admit Arafat would fly in the face of American policy.” said Seymour Reich, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Reich said such a move would “appear to reward those who are engaged in violence and rioting” in the administered territories.
Henry Siegman, executive director of the American Jewish Congress, said Arafat should not be rewarded for “deliberately seeking to inflame Arab passions” by blaming the Rishon le-Zion attack on the Israeli government.
“It is a clear, blatant lie to say that this killing was the result of any deliberate plot by the Israeli government,” he said.
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