The United States will boycott United Nations ceremonies marking International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on Nov. 29, it was stated here today by Andrew Young, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN.
In a letter made public by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Young said he had informed UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim that the United States regarded the work of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People as a “misuse of UN funds.” He added: “We will continue to urge other member states to support this position.”
Young’s statement was issued following a meeting he held last week with the UN Task Force of the Presidents Conference, in which the Conference called the UN campaign–which includes a pro-PLO film starring Yasir Arafat–“an effort to distort the history of the Middle East, to justify the terrorist slaughter of innocent women and children, and to canonize Arafat as a great hero of national liberation.”
Young’s statement was released as a letter to Senator Abraham A. Ribicoff (D. Conn.), a member of the U.S. delegation to the current UN General Assembly session. Last week, Ribicoff had written to Young urging that the U.S. “not participate” in the Nov. 29 ceremonies, “not send a message to be read at the meeting” and “make clear its strong opposition to this misuse of the United Nations.”
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