Support for Israel’s Right to UN Seat Backed by Black Lawmakers, Peace, Disarmament, Women’s Groups

Rep. Bella S. Abzug, (D.NY) said Friday she was “extremely pleased and gratified” that 10 Black Congressional leaders and a number of peace, disarmament and women’s groups had issued statements strongly upholding Israel’s right to remain in the United Nations.

At Rep. Abzug’s request, the 10 representatives the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE), the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Women’s Strike for Peace (WSP) and the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), all released statements or letters opposing the recent resolutions by Africans and Moslem states calling for Israel’s exclusion from the UN.

Statements were also received from leaders of the National Urban League, the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the Women’s Political Caucus (WPC).

Rep. Abzug announced she would read each statement into the Congressional Record, adding her own strong condemnation of efforts to suspend or expel Israel, whose continued active membership in the world body, she said, “should be unquestioned and is essential for world peace.”

“It is especially meaningful,” she added, “that at this crucial moment in the history of world diplomacy a number of organizations whose members believe deeply in peace and international justice have joined me and many others in rebuking efforts to deny Israel the right to membership in the community of nations.”

Rep. Abzug is a co-sponsor of the resolution by Thomas O’Neill (D. Mass) calling for American reassessment of its “relationship with and commitments to the United Nations General Assembly, looking to a possible withdrawal from that body” should Israel be expelled or suspended.