2 — THE BULLETIN — Wednesday, September 14,1994
By HUGH ORGEL
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Farouk Kaddoumi, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Tunis-based Foreign Affairs Department, has called for the annihilation of Israel.
Israel's ITIM News Agency quoted a radio address broadcast over a PLO station in which Kaddoumi, without mentioning Israel by name, said:
"There is a state which was established through historical force and it must be destroyed. This is the Palestinian way. They seized our land. The refugees must return to their land."
Kaddoumi, a member of the PLO's executive committee, added that the Palestinians would not "give up on one grain of sand of the Palestinian land."
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who met with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in Gaza, lashed out against Kaddoumi*s remarks during a joint news conference following the meeting.
"We cannot accept that a senior man in the leadership of the PLO rises up and speaks against the fact of the "existence of the State of Israel. It is unthinkable, and if repeated, it will be a serious obstacle to the progress" of negotiations with the PLO, Rabin said.
When Arafat and other members of the ruling Palestinian governing authority recently transferred their
headquarters from Tunis to the Gaza Strip and the Jericho enclave in the West Bank, Kaddoumi remained in Tunis.
Under the terms of the declaration of principles signed by Israel and the PLO last September, the Palestinians are barred from establishing direct relations with foreign countries. As a result, the PLO has been maintaining its diplomatic office in Tunis.
For his part, Arafat attempted to play down the significance of Kaddoumi*s remarks.
"This is his point of view, not that of the PLO. I am looking into it now," Arafat said.
The next day Foreign Minister Shimon Peres phoned Arafat twice to insist that the PLO leader take a firmer stand against Kad-doumi*s remarks.
Peres stressed that Arafat would have to issue a public condemnation of the remarks.
Arafat agreed to publish a statement that Kaddoumi's remarks were his own personal opinion and did not reflect the stand of the PLO.
Other Palestinian leaders were meanwhile more forthcoming in their criticism of Kaddoumi's statements, describing them as "incorrect and unwise" and saying that they hoped the comments would not affect the ongoing dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians.
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A new bill likely to pass the Knesset would strengthen sanctions the rabbinical courts could levy against husbands who refuse to grant divorces to their wives.
The bill reflects an effort to improve the plight of thousands of Israeli women, called agunoty whose husbands will not give them a get (Jewish divorce), and who, therefore, are forbidden by Jewish law to remarry. Civil marriage is not perjformed in Israel.
Given that it was prepared by the Justice and Religious Affairs ministries, with approval of rabbinical courts, the legislation will likely have support of religious parties in the Knesset and thus, a good chance of passing.
Women's groups say they welcome the legislation as a first step in addressing the
problem. They add, however, they would prefer to see the authority over the recalcitrant husbands in the hands of civil, rather than religious, courts.
**The religious courts don*t use the authority they already have, and we're afraid they won't use the (increased) authority this law gives them," said Gittit Nachliel, a lawyer in the rabbinical courts and coordinator for the International Coalition for Agunah Rights.
But Nachliel acknowledged that shifting the authority to civil courts is impossible in the current political climate, which essentially gives religious parties veto power.
Given political realities, she said, "We'll give them a chance."
Current law allows for HUSBANDS - Page 6
'Cronin, Floyd and Lipstein," crooned the operator.
'May I talk to Mr. Lipstein?"
Mr. Lipstein is out, sir; this is Yom Kippur."
Oh, well, Mr. Kippur, please tell him his car is fixed."
FOUR CABINET MEMBERS — (second from Minister Amnon Rubinstein, Police Minister Ellezer—visit Modi'in to see for themselves on site of new city.
Israel Sun
Justice Minister David Liba'i, (next) Education Shachal and Housing Minister BInyamin Ben Involved witl^ ancient burial caves unearthed
Defector says Saudis helped build Iraqi nuclear weapons
By MBCHAEL SHAPIRO
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In the wake of allegations that the Saudi Arabian government is spying on American Jewish groups.
the anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Defense League are urging U.S. officials to investigate the charges.
A former Saudi diplomat who is seeking political asy-
■ By CYNTHIA MANN
JERUSALEM — (JTA) — Foreign Minister Shimon Peres reiterated recently that when and if an agreement is reached with Syria on the Golan Heights, it would be submitted for a referendum to the Israeli public.
He also said the Golan could not be compared to Jerusalem, which is the "heart of Jewish life," belongs to Israel and would never be divided.
He said there was no place for Palestinian sovereignty over Palestinian parts of Jerusalem. "Jerusalem is politically closed and religiously open," he said during a briefing of reporters from the Diaspora Jewish media.
He expressed similar views a day earlier, via a satellite briefing at the Israeli Consulate in New York for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
With regard to the Golan, Peres said, "I don't know if the Golan is ours or not. At least two times (in the past) the government said it is not ours."
The foreign minister said he believed that support for the peace process among Diaspora Jews is increasing every day.
He defended the interim autonomy arrangements with the Palestinians in the face of charges they should be abandoned in favor of permanent agreements. He said it is important to improve relations first.
"To draw frontiers on current relations would go nowhere," he said. "I prefer a calendar to a map."
Peres also cited the dangers of Muslim fundamentalism in the region, saying the only way to combat it is "not by guns," but through economic development and an increased standard of living.
lum in the United States has leveled the spying charges against the Saudi government.
Mohammed al-Khilewi, who served as first secretary at the Saudi Mission to the United Nations until May of this year, also has charged that the Saudi government is supporting the Islamic fundamentalist movement Hamas, and that it funded Iraq's nuclear weapons program while trying to acquire nuclear weapons for itself.
Al-Khilewi, who claims his life is in danger since making his allegations, has been seeking asylum since late June. He said he has evidence — a secretly taped conversation — in which he was directly threatened by a Saudi official because of his activities.
Although many people have expressed skepticism of al-Khilewi's charges, sources on Capitol Hill have said that the allegations are being taken seriously.
One congressional aide said that although Saudi Arabia is a staunch ally, it is not a democratic, open country, and the charges need to be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly.
In response to al-Khilewi's allegations that Saudi surveillance of American Jewish, Arab and Muslim groups has been a "perman-
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cost-of-living index rose by 1.1 percent in July. The increase, higher than the 0.7-0.8 percent anticipated by the Finance Ministry, put the annual rate of inflation at 14.5 percent.
Blunt warning
TEL AVIV — Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin issued a blunt warning to Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat: The extension of self-rule could be jeopoardized if the Palestinians do not prove their ability to control terrorism in the newly autonomous areas of the Gaza Strip and West Bank Jericho district.
Soldiers wounded
TEL AVIV — An Israeli soldier was lightly wounded when mortars fired by Islamic fundamentalist Hezbollah hit an Israel Defense Force post. Hezbollah fired mortars and rockets at two Israeli positions and also fired at an army post located in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon, wounding a second Israeli soldier.
BONN — Three youths who overturned 15 tombstones at a Jewish cemetery in the Thuringian town of Muhlhausen were released after local police determined that alcohol, not neo-Nazi ideology, had motivated them.
Police who arrested the three teenagers for the vandalism said they had been released because they had "had no political motives" and were *not neo-Nazis."
A police official said that the youths, ages 14, 15 and 16, had been doing some drinking and were trying to show off to their friends.
Two of the vandals reportedly live in a home for troubled youths. A third lives with his parents.
« * *
WASHINGTON
In
wake of a suburban Atlanta teacher's protest of a new school prayer law in Georgia, some Jewish organizations are preparing to join an expected legal challenge to the 3-month-oid statute.
Brian Brown, 41-year-old social studies teacher, refused to observe a 60-second period of "quiet reflection" and instead continued to teach his class.
Officials at South Gwinnett High School suspended Brown with pay after he refused again the next day to observe the moment of silence and then he left school grounds.