The Parliamentary League for Arab-Brazilian Friendship, organized by the Palestine Liberation Orgranization, has been installed in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies as part of intensive PLO efforts to strengthen its position in the nation.
The installation, according to Rabbi Morton Rosenthal, director of the Latin American Affairs Department of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, took place Dec. 2 in the capital at Brasilia, marking the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Rosenthal, who has just returned from a visit to Brazil, said that nearly 100 members of the Brazilian Congress, from both the government and opposition parties, have joined the Parliamentary League, which plans to submit a draft resolution to the Brazilian Congress formalizing the group as a parliamentary bloc.
PLEDGES CONTINUING FIGHT AGAINST ZIONISM
At the installation ceremony, Farid Sawan, the representative of the PLO in Brazil, read a message from Yasir Arafat expressing the latter’s desire to strengthen ties with the Brazilian people and promising that Arabs “will continue the fight against imperialism, Zionist colonialism and racial segregation.”
Rosenthal said that Sawan, who operates out of the Arab League office in Brasilia, has been campaigning in labor, government and university circles for establishment of a separate PLO office. He added, however, that Sawan does not have support of most Brazilians of Arab descent, the majority of whom are Christian and opposed to the PLO.
Rosenthal said he also found that within military circles, there is great opposition to the setting up of a PLO office because it is felt that PLO offices in other countries are centers for international terrorism.
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