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SIDEWALK SALE
Israel To Abolish Law
Regarding The PLO
Jerusalem (JTA) — Israel
took a first step last week
toward abolishing the law
that bans meetings with
members of the Palestine
Liberation Organization.
The Justice Ministry
distributed to the various
ministries its first draft of a
bill to amend the law.
The present law forbids
any contacts with the PLO,
regardless of the purpose of
the meeting. It is for this
reason that peace activist
Abie Nathan was jailed
twice, and each time he
swore he would fight to
change the law.
•
A delegation of six Israeli
Arabs returned recently from
Tunis after meeting with
PLO leaders, despite saying
beforehand that they would
not break the law.
On returning to Israel, one
member of the delegation,
Knesset member Hashem
Mahamid of the Democratic
Front for Peace and Equal-
ity, told reporters he had
met with Arafat and Nayef
Hawatmeh of the Democrat-
ic Front for the Liberation of
Palestine.
Mr. Mahamid said he felt
--) no compunction about
breaking the law as it was
"undemocratic and unjust."
Under the new bill, the
main legal test of a meeting
with a member of a terrorist
organization would be in-
tent. Meetings whose pur-
pose it was to harm state
security would continue to
be considered criminal.
The proposed amendment
to the law relates only to
meetings with represent-
atives of terrorist organiza-
tions.
Other parts of the law,
such as the ban on raising
funds for an outlawed organ-
ization, or the ban on ex-
pressing solidarity with a
terrorist group, will not be
altered.
The law banning any con-
tacts with officials of the Pa-
lestinian organization was
passed six years ago and has
come under considerable
public criticism since.
),=c,
Amending the law was one
of the promises the Labor
Party made to the Arab and
Communist parties during
the coalition negotiations.
A few days ago, PLO
leader Yassir Arafat
welcomed reports on the
proposed change, but urged
the Israeli government to go
one step further and start
direct talks with the PLO.
But in a statement repor-
ting the distribution of the
draft bill, the Justice Min-
istry stressed that this did
not indicate any change in
Israel's declared policy not
to negotiate with the PLO.
A similar comment was
made by Premier Yitzhak
Rabin during his visit to the
United States.
Justice Minister David
Libai said it was absurd that
peace- loving people such as
Abie Nathan and journalist
Uri Avneri —who has often
met with Mr. Arafat — are
considered "terrorists" in
the present wording of the
law.
The draft bill will be pre-
sented within three weeks to
a ministerial legal com-
mittee, and then move on to
the Knesset.
Case Founders
Due To Funding
Sydney, Australia (JTA) —
The Australian government
has confirmed that a fourth
case against an alleged Nazi
war criminal will not be
tried because funding for
crucial final investigations
will not be made available.
Media reports have iden-
tified the man as a 79-year-
old resident of Melbourne
who was an officer and
committed the alleged
crimes in Latvia during
World War II.
Australia's Special In-
vestigations Unit, appointed
to prepare evidence against
Australian residents accus-
ed of crimes against human-
ity during the Nazi occupa-
tion of Europe, was funded
until June 30, the end of the
fiscal year.
The decision not to proceed
with the case follows
statements by Graham
Blewitt, the unit's former di-
r,
ect or , that there was
enough evidence collected to
establish a strong prima-
facie case against the alleg-
ed war criminal.
But there is no consensus
among other government of-
ficials on how near the in-
vestigation had come to pro-
ducing the evidence required
to bring the case to trial.
Although it is technically
possible that further trials
may occur in Australia, it is
now considered unlikely
that there will be any new
war crimes cases introduced
in Australia.
There have been no convic-
tions in Australia's cases
against alleged Nazi war
criminals.
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