THE DETROIT JEWISH HEWS
Bikel Answers Vanessa and Her PLO Colleagues
(Editor's note: The fol-
lowing open letter to ac-
tress Vanessa Redgrave
was written in mid-July
by Theodore Bikel.)
Since you have addressed
the (Actors') Equity Council
and the trade and national
press with reference to some
remarks of mine regarding
your association with the
PLO, I am answering you in
this form. I fear this later
will neither be very short
nor very pleasant.
In the first instance it
must be stated emphati-
cally that I take great care
when speaking in my capac-
ity as president of Actors'
Equity to confine myself to
Equity positions alone
without involving my pri-
vate views. It is somewhat
unfortunate that the press
when reporting remarks I
make as a private citizen al-
lows the impression to pre-
vail that they were made in
the name of Actors' Equity.
Thus Equity has made no
comment at all on your film
"The Palestinian." Theo-
dore Bikel did; what I said
and why I shall discuss a lit-
tle later in this statement.
The only matter Actors'
Equity took issue with was
your call for a cultural
boycott of Israel by British
Actors' Equity. Your at-
tempt to ban the release of
all taped and filmed mate-
rial by British actors for TV
showings in Israel, your call
for a cancellation of all
prospective and current
British actors' contracts
within Israel gave rise to
my comments on behalf of
American Equity that we
consider such a move de-
structive of the relation-
ships within the interna-
tional acting fraternity.
Since the United States,
Great Britain and Israel are
members of the 40-nation
International Federation of
Actors, our comment was
totally consonant with our
commitment to fraternal re-
lations between all actors
regardless of ideological or
geopolitical considerations.
This issue was, I re-
emphasize, the only one ad-
dressed by Actors' Equity;
interestingly, you chose to
be entirely silent on it in
your communications with
us and the press. Instead
you elected to focus on your
propaganda film The
Palestinian", regarding
which I did make some
comment as a private citi-
zen and as a Jew.
I did not, as was reported,
quote from a verbatim
transcript which at the time
was not before me but did
say that in Redgrave's film
Yassir Arafat reiterated his
call for the elimination of
the state of Israel without
any disagreement or de-
murrer from my colleague
Ms. Redgrave.
I stand by that statement,
which, incidentally, is
borne out by the verbatim
transcript you quote in your
letter. The PLO's policy and
credo is spelled out by the
Palestinian Covenant of
1964 as amended in 1968.
The basic tenet of this
document was never abro-
gated or modified. Indeed it
was many times affirmed
and reaffirmed.
I quote from Article 19:
"The establishment of Is-
rael is fundamentally null
and void." Not even a sepa-
rate Palestinian state
alongside of Israel is to be
tolerated. As recently as
July 1974 the Palestinian
National Council declared:
Oral Histories of U.S. Jews
Compiled by AJCommittee
NEW YORK — More
than 600 of America's
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A "Catalogue of
Memoirs," listing the
names of those who have re-
corded their personal biog-
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sketches of what they
talked about, is available
from the American Jewish
Committee, 165 E. 56th
Street, New York 10022.
There is a charge.
The catalogue is di-
vided into six sections: a
list of individual
memoirs; a series of 50 in-
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of the Holocaust and
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workers, journalists and
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analyzing the roles and
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interviews on the life of
Jacob Blaustein, the
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philanthropist
human rights advocate.
Some of the interviews
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The status of each interview
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catalogue.
The wisest man can fool
himself.
since 1948 and quickly ab-
sorbed by Israel and the rest
of the free world. In the sec-
ond place, by your friends'
own pronouncements where
would such a "democratic
state" be established if not
on the very ashes of the
state of Israel?
And please spare me your
sophistry (and Arafat's who
came to the world's peace
forum carrying a gun): We
are not against Jews, we are
against Zionists. Indeed. In
THEODORE BIKEL
the wake of the Holocaust, it
was for years unfashionable
". . . the PLO will struggle
and impolitic to say any-
against any plan for the es-
thing insulting and perjora-
tablishment of a Palesti-
nian entity, the price of tive against Jews. Now once
again you can say anything
which is recognition of Is-
rael, conciliation, secure you like about a Jew as long
borders, etc." This from as your call him a Zionist.
You may want to be
your "moderates." Farouk
al-Kaddoumi, chief political thought of as a supporter of
strategist of the PLO de- "liberation movements"
and a champion of Palesti-
clares in Newsweek in 1975:
"Israel must be destroyed." nian rights. It may surprise
Two years later he is% little you to learn that I am not at
more public-relations all averse to entertaining
minded; he proposes that Is- the notion of Arab or Pales-
rael be destroyed in stages: tinian aspirations. But you
"The first phase is (return) have anointed the PLO as
to the 1967 lines and the "the only representative of
the Palestinian people"
second to the 1948 lines . .
the third stage is the democ- (Redgrave resolution to
British Equity). And thus
ratic state of Palestine."
And so we come to you make yourself an
Arafat's statement in your ideological_ partner of the
transcript: ". . . to estab- murderers of schoolchildren
lish our democratic Pales- at Ma'alot, of pregnant
tine state where Muslims, women at Kiryat Shmona,
Christians and Jews can of Olympic athletes at
Munich, indeed of Wasfi
live together, together."
In the first place one Tal, an Arab minister, in
questions the sincerity of Cairo and of hundreds of
the statement since in all of Jews and Arabs alike in
the Arab world there has Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and
yet to exist such a deinocra- Gaza.
I am appalled by your ap-
tic state. Not only can Arab
Christians and Muslims parent insensitivity and of-
apparently not live together fended by your pronounce-
but 800,000 Jews were ex- ments. You dishonor me as
pelled from Arab lands a human being and as a Jew
•
Friday, Judy 28, 1978 15
Staefeationa/
by distorting history and by
pretending that there is a
difference between those
Jew-haters who destroyed
Jerusalem 2,000 years ago
and those who seek to de-
stroy it now.
Theodore Bikel
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