A member of the Jewish Defense League was picked up by the police for questioning today in connection with a bomb blast that wrecked the New York office of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the central guerrilla administration headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon. The police, who released the JDL member after questioning, declined to give his name. Police said later that they were looking for an “Arabic-looking” man with an “Afro-type” haircut who is suspected of planting the bomb. Rabbi Meir Kahane, national chairman of the JDL, refused to comment on the questioning of its member. The JDL has frequently threatened retaliation for Arab terrorist acts against Jews. The police said that a bomb, apparently placed in an attache case outside the PLO’s Park Avenue office, exploded shortly after 11 p.m. last night blowing out windows on the floor and knocking down walls. No one was injured. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a PLO member, was responsible for hijacking four airliners last month and holding their passengers and crew hostage in Jordan. All the hostages have since been freed. The police said they obtained their description of the suspect from a cleaning woman and a night watchman. United Press International reported that it received a phone call about a half hour before the explosion saying that the building had been bombed. The anonymous caller used the phrase “Never again,” a JDL slogan. The PLO said today that the bombing was the third “attempt to intimidate the Palestinians” in the past year and the work of “fascist” elements seeking to stifle difference of opinion.
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.
