Gesticulating and shouting his demands, a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization tried to hold a press conference in the giant press room set up for the annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) here. But he was barred from doing so under the rules set up for the meeting.
“You’re a Zionist tool,” Hatem Husseini, chief of the PLO’s Washington office, jeered of John Merriam, director of information and public affairs of the World Bank. For from being a “Zionist tool,” Merriam worked in Jordan for a number of years and is a friend of King Hussein and his family.
Husseini demanded the right to hold a press conference on grounds that the PLO is a member of the Arab League which had credentials last year for observer status of the World Bank-IMF meeting, though not this year. All observers have been “disinvite” to the current meeting because the PLO was barred.
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.
