U.S. Will Not Participate in UN Activities on Palestinians

A spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that Ambassador Andrew Young will not participate in General Assembly activities this year on behalf of the Palestinians, including celebration of “Palestine Day” to be marked on Nov. 29.

“The Ambassador will not participate in these activities and no other members of the Mission,” spokesman Tom Offenburger said. He said “We think those activities detract from the efforts now underway to reach peace in the Mideast.” Nov.29 will mark the 31st anniversary of the General Assembly’s Palestine partition decision which paved the way for establishment of Israel’s independence.

Earlier this month, Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D. Conn.), who is a member of the U.S. Mission to the UN, sent a letter to Young expressing his “hope that the United States will not participate in the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people on November 29 and will not send a message to be read at that meeting as we have been invited to do.

“I urge rather,” Ribicoff wrote, “that the United States make clear its strong opposition to this misuse of the United Nations and its disappointment that such a UN activity should hamper the most promising opportunity for peace in the Middle East in the past thirty years.”

Ribicoff called Young’s attention to the fact that “in the closing days of this recent session of Congress, several of my colleagues underscored their concern for this adverse use of the United Nations system and I fully share their concern.”

Ribicoff gave permission to Yehuda Hellman, executive director of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, to release the letter at a meeting of the Conference with Young last week. (By Yitzhak Rabi)