Officials at the South African Embassy in Tel Aviv said today they did not know whether Finance Minister Owen Peter Harwood of South Africa would visit Israel in the near future, following the “postponement” of his visit.
Harwood was scheduled to visit Israel within the next few days, after a European tour. However, according to reports here, Finance Minister Simcha Ehrlich will not be in the country at that time and, therefore, Embassy officials were told, the visit should be postponed.
Unofficially it was reported here that Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan ruled the time was not now ripe for a visit by a South African personality when relations between Israel and the American Black community are strained and when Israeli leaders refused to see a Black delegation from the U.S. the Southern Christian Leadership Conference headed by Joseph Lowery. Therefore, Ehrlich was reportedly advised to extend his stay overseas to provide legitimate reason for the postponement of Harwood’s visit.
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