An exceptional order by Attorney General Yosef Harish to interrogate three Knesset members about their meetings with Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat was applauded by the rightwing Tuesday and denounced by the left.
The Knesset members are Communist party members Meir Wilner and Tawfik Zayyad, and Abd-el Wahab Darousha of the Arab Democratic Party. Zayyad and Darousha are Arabs.
In addition, the attorney general plans to question Tamar Guzsansky, a leader of the Communist Party, about her meetings with various PLO representatives.
Israeli law forbids citizens from any form of contact with members of terrorist organizations, a category the government insists includes the PLO, despite Arafat’s renunciation of terrorism in Algiers last year.
Harish’s order came as Israeli peace activist Abie Nathan went on trial in a Ramla magistrate’s court for violation of the law. Nathan, a private citizen, freely admitted having several meetings with Arafat and other PLO figures.
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.
