Israel formally protested today France’s decision to permit the Palestine Liberation Organization to open an information and liaison office in Paris. Israeli Charge d’Affaires, Mordechai Drori, delivered the official protest this afternoon to the French Foreign Ministry’s Secretary General Geoffrey do Courcelles.
Israeli sources described the 40-minute meeting as “frank.” They said Drori also informed France of Israel’s views on the non-representativity of the PLO and of Israel’s determination not to negotiate with a terrorist organization whose ultimate aim is Israel’s destruction, French sources said the Courcelles explained France’s reasons for permitting the opening of the bureau which, French sources here say has been operating for several years.
Meanwhile, the Representative Council of French Jewish Organizations (CRIF) branded the French government’s claim that the office will prevent terrorist attacks in France as “fallacious” and has invited France’s Jews to show their sentiments by attending a mass meeting tomorrow at the memorial to unknown Jewish martyrs,
Nearly all French Jewish organizations have released communiques and appeals to persuade the French government to cancel its authorization, French official sources told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, however, that “it is completely out of the question for us to reverse the decision.”
WARNS OF NEW TENSIONS
Israeli Ambassador to France Asher Ben Natan, said yesterday that France’s decision “will renew the tension” which has existed between Israel and France, Ben Natan, who is due to leave Paris this week after five years’ service as Ambassador, said “a certain detente in France-Israeli relations has taken place. The French decision (concerning the PLO) is likely to renew tension.”
Mean while, members of Parliament representing a number of parties met in caucus yesterday to assail the government’s decision and asked French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing to reconsider it. (By Edwin Eytan.)
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