Sen. Dan Quayle (R. Ind.) introduced a resolution today calling on Secretary of State Alexander Haig to extradite to Israel a West Bank Arab wanted for a terrorist act.
The resolution, which is expected to be voted on Monday, says: “It is the sense of the Senate that Ziad Abu-Eain should be immediately remanded to the custody of Israeli officials and that the Secretary of State do whatever is necessary to insure that Ziad Abu-Eain is extradited to stand trial for the murders with which he has been charged.”
The State Department said earlier this week that Deputy Secretary of State William Clark is studying the legal aspects of Israel’s extradition request.
Abu-Eain, 22, from Ramallah, has been charged with murder in the bombing of the Tiberias market place on May 14, 1979 in which two young boys were killed and 36 other persons injured. He was arrested by the FBI in Chicago in August 1979 and has been appealing against extradition. The Supreme Court on Oct. 13 refused to hear his appeal and let stand a lower court order permitting extradition.
Quayle said that the Secretary of State has two calendar months to extradite Abu-Eain or release him. “The State Department is taking an unnecessary risk of Abu-Eain being released on a writ of habeas corpus on Sunday, December 13,” the Senator said.
“What a terrible precedent would be set,” he added. “On the one hand, we are tracking Libyan terrorists all over the western hemisphere while on the other we are playing an appeasement game with the Arabs over a man accused of killing two children with a bomb.” Arab Ambassadors to the U.S. have been appealing to the State Department on Abu-Eain’s behalf.
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