A memorial ceremony today for Leon Klinghoffer, the elderly American Jew slain by the Palestinian hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro last week, turned into a forum for invective by legislators against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for his attempt to grant the hijackers free passage out of Egypt, and for counter-appeals for restraint of the anger in Congress toward the only Arab state to have made peace with Israel.
Organized by Rochelle Herman, Fred Schulman and Mitchel Finkel — who said the event was undertaken on their own initiative and independently of any group — the ceremony brought several members of Congress, clergymen, the president of the National Organization of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, Lee Breuer, and about 100 spectators to the lawn across the Capitol. Sharon Hellman, a cousin of Klinghoffer’s widow, Marilyn, also addressed the group on the Klinghoffer family’s behalf.
Criticizing Egypt for attempting to fly the hijackers of the Achille Lauro to freedom and then demanding an apology for the interception of the Egyptian airliner carrying them out of Egypt, Rep. Bill Green (R. NY) announced in his tribute to Klinghoffer that he had asked Rep. David Obey (D. Wisc.), chairman of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, to offer an amendment reducing aid to Egypt when the foreign aid appropriations bill is considered by the House.
“Congress has been very generous with Egypt but with the understanding that Egypt would contribute to peace in the Middle East,” Green said, adding that “permitting terrorists to go free is the antithesis of contributing to peace.”
‘A SHAMEFUL EVENT’
Green’s announcement was followed by more forceful and direct criticism of Mubarak, with whom relations have been badly strained in the aftermath of the hijack incident. “What a shameful event,” Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R. NY) said of the hijacking and murder of Klinghoffer. “But even as despicable, my friends, as reprehensible, as shameful a performance I’ve ever seen, was the performance of President Mubarak.”
Addressing the Egyptian President, D’Amato said, “shame on you, Mr. Mubarak,” and then proceeded to question whether Egypt is a reliable ally of the U.S. and to demand that Mubarak apologize to the U.S. for his actions.
D’Amato also announced that the Anti-Terrorist Caucus of the Senate has appealed to Secretary of State George Shultz to apply a provision of the Act to Combat International Terrorism that permits the government to offer a $500,000 reward for the capture of terrorist fugitives, to Muhammad Abbas, the believed mastermind of the hijack operation who accompanied the terrorists on the Egyptian plane and was subsequently permitted by Italy to leave that country.
D’Amato’s remarks on Egypt were met with applause, but so were subsequent appeals for restraint by Sen. Daniel Moynihan (D. NY) and Rep. Ted Weiss (D. NY). Weiss said that whatever injustice Egypt has committed, “we must not allow the PLO to gain as its final victory the tearing apart of the fabric of alliance which the U.S. has created. We must deny them that victory.”
President Reagan sent a message, read by D’Amato at the ceremony in which he extended condolences to the Klinghoffer family and demanded “that civilized people act to protect innocent travellers.”
Hours before the memorial ceremony, it was confirmed here that the body of a man that was washed ashore near the Syrian port of Tartus is that of Klinghoffer. The body reportedly had two bullets in it.
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.
