U.S. Black Civil Rights Leaders Say They Abhor the PLO

Seven Black American civil rights leaders and trade union officials, here as guests of Histadrut, expressed abhorrence today for the Palestine Liberation Organization and said that while American Blacks hold a variety of opinions on the Middle East conflict, all agree that the U.S. must support the existence of a free Israel within secure borders. At the same time, they said, they supported self-determination for the Palestinian people.

The views of the group were stated to reporters by one of its members, Bayard Rustin, at a press conference this morning at Histadrut headquarters. Rustin, executive director of the A Philip Randolph Institute, said that granting recognition and respect to one terrorist organization meant granting recognition to all. “To make the PLO respectable is like making the Ku Klux Klan respectable,” he said.

His remarks contrasted sharply with those of Rev. Jesse Jackson who has urged the U.S. to recognize the PLO and with the views expressed until recently by officials of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that the PLO was moderating its positions.

Rustin said his group did not come to Israel in response to any other Black American groups that might have preceded them. He observed that just as Israelis differ on questions of strategy and tactics, American Blacks hold a variety of views on the problems affecting a solution of the Middle East conflict. But he listed five points on which, he said, there is total agreement among the various Black American organizations.

FIVE POINTS OF AGREEMENT

“We believe that Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, must exist in peace with secure borders,” Rustin said. “We, all of us, believe that the U.S., its President and Congress, must work to give – Israel adequate support to maintain a free Israel with secure borders. We also believe that the Palestinians, like all other peoples, should have the right for self-determination. We oppose all expressions of racism, anti-Semitism and violence as a political solution wherever they appear. And we are deeply committed to continue to strengthen the special historic relationship that Blacks and Jews have maintained in the U.S.”

William Pollard, director of the civil rights department of the AFL-CIO, said his delegation represents some 142 Black American organizations. He said he believed all of them oppose acts of hostility in pursuit of political aims. But, he added, while they all believe Israel must be allowed to exist in peace and secure borders, the Palestinians have a right to self-determination.

The group was greeted by Histadrut Secretary General Yeruham Meshel and he was thereafter addressed by the delegation as “brother Meshel.” He noted that Israel is now engaged in negotiations over the fate of the Palestinians. He acknowledged that there is a Palestinian identity and that Israel has no desire or intention to govern one-and-a-quarter million Palestinians on the West Bank. The delegation was due to meet late today with Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres.