An angry verbal exchange erupted Monday, the first full day of the annual European Jewish Congress meeting here, over the invitation extended to Ariel Sharon, Israel’s controversial minister of commerce and industry.
The meeting opened on a more auspicious note here Sunday night. For the first time ever, two Soviet diplomats were present. “We received an invitation from the EJC and we accepted,” said Petr Baouline, first secretary at the Soviet Embassy.
“The policy of the Soviet Union is marked by glasnost (openness) and we will have contacts with leaders of the European Jewish Congress,” he said.
About 100 delegates from 25 Western and Eastern European countries are attending the two-day meeting, though none from the Soviet Union. There are official observers from Israel and the United States.
Meanwhile, Sharon, an outspoken Herut hard-liner and hero of Israel’s right wing, was invited to speak before the delegates Monday afternoon, along with Claude Cheysson, the European Community commissioner responsible for its Mediterranean area policy.
David Susskind, honorary president of Brussels’ leftist Secular Jewish Community Center, charged that Sharon personalizes “domination over another people,” an apparent reference to Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians in the administered territories.
A French delegate, Manek Weintraub, retorted that Sharon personalizes “the survival of the Jewish people.”
EX-OFFICIAL IN WEST BANK INVITED
To balance Sharon, the meeting’s organizers invited reserve Gen. Ephraim Sneh of the Israel Defense Force, who resigned as head of the civil administration in the West Bank in protest against government policies in the territories.
Sneh is due to address a luncheon session Tuesday chaired by Susskind.
Earlier, Israel Singer, secretary general of the World Jewish Congress, of which the European congress is an affiliate, urged the delegates of all political hues to express freely “what they think.”
Theo Klein, president of the European Jewish body, greeted the two Russian diplomats Sunday and also welcomed the presence of the ambassadors of Hungary and Romania and representatives from the embassies of East Germany, Bulgaria, Poland and Czechoslovakia.
The agenda of the two-day meeting includes relations between the European Community and the Soviet-led economic alliance of the Eastern bloc, Comecon. The two will sign an agreement next month establishing official relations for the first time.
The meeting is being held in the European Community headquarters building here.
Markus Pardes, president of the Coordinating Committee of Belgian Jewish Organizations, stressed at the opening that Jewish communities can only benefit from an easing of East-West tensions, a reference to the summit conference between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev now taking place in Moscow.
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