A number of delegates who attended a meeting of the European Jewish Congress in London last week took time out to meet with a senior official of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The delegates told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency they met with Bassam Abu Sharif, one of Yasir Arafat’s top advisers, who offered a lengthy explanation of what he said was the PLO’s current policy and its “desire for peace and negotiations.”
In New York, the World Jewish Congress, of which the European Jewish Congress is part, promptly dissociated itself from the meeting.
WJC Secretary-General Israel Singer stressed that “no such meeting took place under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress. It goes against the very grain of WJC policy.”
The delegates said the meeting took place Sept. 10 and was attended, on the Jewish side, by delegates from France, Belgium and Italy.
It was arranged, they said, by David Susskind of Belgium, a veteran Zionist leader and outspoken dove, who is chairman of the Secular Jewish Community Center in Brussels.
Another participant mentioned was Henry Bulawko, president of the French branch of the WJC and a prominent official of the Representative Council of Jewish Organizations in France.
Tullia Zevi, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities and the only Italian representative at the EJC assembly, said in New York on Sunday that she “was informed that such a meeting took place, but I didn’t go.”
According to those who attended, Abu Sharif was accompanied by a member of the PLO delegation in London.
He is reported to have said the PLO wants peace with Israel and would be open to discussion of any Israeli requests for security arrangements.
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.
