Prime Minister Harold Wilson has written to the Jewish community here justifying his government’s decision not to withdraw visas to PLO representatives coming to the Inter-Parliamentary Union conference next month. The letter was sent on Wilson’s behalf by his private secretary to MP Greville Janner, who as acting president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews had written to protest against the visas.
In his letter, Wilson said that the invitations to attend the IPU conference “are a matter for the IPU. The government has no responsibility for the invitation to representatives of the Palestine National Council to attend as observers….” The letter added that the Prime Minister “understands your feelings and the argument about the IPU’s decision….So far as the entry of the PLO is concerned the only question for the government now that the invitations have been extended is whether or not foreign citizens who wish to enter this country should be prevented from doing so.”
Wilson also noted that the Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins, “takes the view that the power invested in him to refuse entry on the grounds that the presence of such a citizen would not be conducive to the public good, should be used only to safeguard national interests and not express moral approval or disapproval of a particular person or visit. The Prime Minister supports this view.”
The refusal of the government to cancel the visas has raised a storm of protest within the Jewish community, among non-Jewish personalities, members of Parliament and in the British press. Some 70 parliaments around the world will send delegations to the IPU conference.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
