MIIIIIII
NEWS
%
10
I:, __-------,
Bid To Recall Israeli
Arab Envoy Denounced
STAFF REPORT
A campaign to persuade
Israel to withdraw an Arab-
Israeli citizen from the post of
consul general in Atlanta has
been condemned by commu-
nity leaders in that southern
city.
"Most of us view the ap-
pointment of Mohammed
Massarwa through the prism
of American democratic
values," said Rabbi Arnold
Goodman, president of the
Atlanta Rabbincal Associa-
tion. "Those values allow for
the expression of minority
rights and the advancement
of those rights through
peaceful means. Israel, also
"Israel is my
country. I do not
perceive it as a
Jewish state."
being a democracy, shares
these values."
Forcing Israel to recall
Mussarwa, who has been con-
sul general in Atlanta since
August, "would in effect be
saying that the American
Jewish community is depor-
ting him," said Goodman. "It
would be sheer madness."
Recalling Massarwa
because he is an Arab would
also be tantamount to confir-
ming the U.N. resolution
equating Zionism with
racism, said Goodman, past
president of the Rabbincal
Assembly, the national body
of Conservative rabbis.
The month-long anti-Mas-
sarwa effort was initiated by
an Atlanta accountant, Jay
Starkman, reportedly a sup-
porter of the Israeli Kach Par-
ty. Founded by Knesset
member Meir Kahane, the
Kach Party postulates that
Israel was intended as a na-
tion solely for Jews and its
Arab population should be
delegitimized or expelled.
While speaking before the
Atlanta Rabbinical Associa-
tion last fall, Mussarwa, a
Moslem, said, "Israel is my
country. I do not perceive it as
a Jewish state. Israeli law
grants Arabs equal
rights . . . They are entitled
to all the rights of citizen-
ship."
Mussarwa has vehemently
denied Starkman's charges
that he refers to Israel as
"Palestine-Israel" and that
"his lips do not move" when
Hatikva, the Israeli national
anthem, is sung at Jewish
events to which he is invited
in Atlanta.
Starkman has said that
Mussarwa's appointment was
"wholly misplaced" because
Israel is "a unique
phenomenon — a culmination
of millenia of Jewish praying
for a return to the Promised
Land, as reflected in Israel's
Law of Return, which applies
only to Jews."
Before his appointment in
Atlanta, Massarwa, 45, had
been elected for two con-
secutive terms from 1976 to
1986 as chairman of the town
council of Kfar Kara in
Galilee. An attorney with an
Arab and Jewish clientele, he
also conducted an unsuc-
cessful campaign for the
Knesset in 1984 as a can-
didate in Ezer Weizman's
Yachad Party. His post as con-
sul general is his first ap-
pointment as an Israeli
diplomat.
Barry Siegel, executive di-
rector of the Atlanta Jewish
Community Center, said
Starkman's campaign has
been joined by "no more than
five or ten" of Atlanta's
70,000 Jews. He described
Massarwa as a "sweet, gentle
human being, an intellectual,
not the sort who stirs people
tm." The recall campaign, said
Siegal, is "a personal
tragedy" for Massarwa.
During a fund-raising con-
cert for the Atlanta Jewish
Federation last week, enter-
tainer Theodore Bikel made a
plea to the local Jewish com-
munity to reject the recall
campaign.
losif Begun
Leaves USSR
New York (JTA) — Iosif
Begun, a Soviet Jewish ac-
tivist and Hebrew teacher
granted permission to
emigrate in September after
16 years of harassment by
Soviet authorities, arrived in
Israel last Tuesday.
The 55-year-old electrical
engineer and former prisoner
of Zion left Moscow with his
wife, Inna; son, Boris; Boris'
wife, Anya; and their
children, the Student Strug-
gle for Soviet Jewry and the
Long Island Council on Soviet
Jewry reported.
The news from Moscow
brings to an end weeks of
uncertainty about Begun's in-
tentions. After receiving per-
mission to emigrate, Begun
confounded OVIR emigration
officials as well as Soviet
Jewry activists by not leaving
immediately.
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
29