Some 2,500 supporters of Israel’s action in Lebanon rallied Friday in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, as Premier Menachem Begin delivered his scheduled address to the United Nations Disarmament Conference.
With balloons, Israeli flags and placards, the demonstrators welcomed Begin to New York, prasised the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and called for an end to terrorism and restoration of a sovereign Lebanon. Some of the banners protested the prosed sale of American Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Jordan.
The rally was sponsored by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the New York Jewish Community Relations Council and the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council. Participants represented member organizations of the sponsors, as well as Hadassah, Jewish senior citizen centers, and the Jewish Defense League Also present at the rally were members of the American-Lebanese Friendship League.
Howard Squadron, chairman of the Presidents Conference, who presided over the rally, announced he had been told that some of the Arab delegations at the United Nations would bring in large numbers of people to the UN General Assembly chambers today, so that when Begin began to speak there would be a large crowd getting up to walk out. “We are here as a large crowd, greeting him welcoming him and supporting him,” Squadron said.
OPPOSE PRESSURE ON ISRAEL
Speakers representing Jewish organizations, New York City, U.S. congressional districts, the AFL-CIO and the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel, urged the United States not to pressure Israel into withdrawing its forces from Lebanon until an arrangement has been found to restore Lebanese sovereignty.
“If the events of Lebanon have taught us anything, it is that we must not go back to the status quo,” New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams told a cheering audience. “We cannot go back to a Lebanon of guerrilla camps, of private militias and Syrian troops. There cannot be a withdrawal until there is a permanent solution.”
Messages from New York’s U.S. Senators Daniel Patrick Maynihan and Alfonse D’Amato denounced the “selective morality” that they perceived in world criticism of Israel’s action in Lebanon, and urged the U.S. Government not to press for an immediate Israeli withdrawal. “The time has come for all of us to insist that our government play a leading role in ensuring the reconstruction of a pluralist, democratic Lebanon — free from foreign occupation, ” Moynihan said.
Meanwhile, some 600-700 supporters of the PLO were picketing the Israeli Consulate and the Israeli Mission to the UN. They moved on to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel where Begin is staying during his visit in New York. The demonstrators included a Hassidic Jew who said he was a representative of the anti-Zionist Neture Karta.
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.
