Irish Rabbi
Meets Arafat

London (JTA) — The chief
rabbi of Ireland and the head
of the Jewish Representative
Council of Ireland have met
with Palestine Liberation
Organization Chairman
Yassir Arafat in Dublin.
Rabbi Simon Harris, who
took up his post four months
ago, used the occasion last
month to lash out at what he
called "the moral bankrupt-
cy" of most Orthodox rabbis
for criticizing Israel's accord
with the Palestine Libera-
tion Organization.
A group of British Or-
thodox rabbis signed a
statement blasting the
Israel-PLO accord signed in
September and a meeting
that the leaders of the Board
of Deputies of British Jews
held with Mr. Arafat in mid-
December.
Rabbi Harris told the Jew-
ish Chronicle that he
respected the nearly 60
British rabbis who had acted
"out of conscience, but as
Zionists" in signing a state-
ment opposing the Board of
Deputies' decision to meet
with the PLO chief.
The British Jewish secular
leaders held a widely
publicized meeting with Mr.
Arafat in mid-December in
London. That meeting, led
by Israel Finestein, head of
the Board of Deputies, was
also attended by the Israeli
ambassador to Britain.
Rabbi Harris, who was ac-
companied by the Ireland
council leader, Martin
Simmons, in meeting with
Mr. Arafat, told the Chroni-
cle: "In spite of Mr. Arafat's
past acts of unspeakable
evil, if he shows any twitch
of peace, we should meet
him. I applaud the Israeli
government for the coura-
geous steps it has taken."
He said he met with Mr.
Arafat "as a Zionist, as a
spiritual representative of
Jews in the republic, and
also mindful of the more
than 1,000 Irish Jews who
have made aliyah."
Rabbi Harris and Mr.
Simmons met with Mr.
Arafat during an official
visit he made to Ireland.
At their meeting they
pressed him for a "blanket
public condemnation" of ter-
rorism against Jews in
Israel and abroad, an end to
the Arab boycott against
Israel and a change in the
PLO charter, which calls for
Israel's destruction.
Mr. Arafat has claimed
that clause in the charter
has been rendered obsolete.

D.J. STUART REFF

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