Page 2-Wednescay, December 6, 1978-The Michigan Daily
Spaniar
MADRID, Spain (AP) - After cen-
turies of law by decree and dictator-
ship, Spaniards vote today on their own
constitution in a plebiscite that has in-
flamed political passions. Three police
officers were shot dead in a bar on the
eve of the vote, apparently by Basque
separatists who oppose the constitution.
Despite terrorist killings, opposition
from extreme left and right and from,
ds
vote on constitution
Oarket study set
The role of the courts in maintaining
a European "Common Market"
marked by free trade and political
unity will be the subject of a study by
European and American lawyers and
jurists, the University announced.
Supported by a grant from the Ford
Foundation, the study is directed by
Prof. Eric Stein and Dean Terrance
Sandalow of the University Law School.
The project will culminate in a con-
ference next July 16-21 in Bellagio,
Italy, where research papers by 11
scholars will be discussed by some 20
conference participants. The
Rockefeller Foundation has made its
Bellagio Study and Conference Center
available for the event. The papers will
be published after the session.
Associate Justice Potter Stewart of
the U.S. Supreme Court and three
members of the European Court of
Justice will be among those par-
ticipating in the discussion.
homosexuals, feminists, ecologists and
elements of the Catholic Church,
government officials predict the
nation's 24 million voters will approve
the new document. It makes permanent
democratic reforms initiated since the
end of the late Gen. Francisco Franco's
dictatorship three years ago.
THE OFF-DUTY policeman - a
chief, an inspector and a patrolman -
were killed by three gunmen as they
sipped pre-lunch , drinks in San
Sebastian in northern Spain's Basque
region. Police blamed the ETA, the
terrorist arm of the Basque nationalist
movement.
The Basque separatists, who are
urging -a boycott of the referendum,
have mounted the heaviest opposition
to the constitution, including a stepped-
up terror campaign in recent months to
deter voters.
The ETA - Basque-language
acronym for "Basque Land and Liber-
ty" - has tripled its assassination ef-
fort this year, killing 52 persons, most
of them soldiers or policemen. The pro-
Marxist ETA demands independence
and removal of "occupation forces,"
meaning national police and the army.
THE BASQUE National Party, ban-
ned by Franco but now represented in
Parliament, says the constitution's
home-rule articles ignore Basque rights
honored for centuries by kings.
More than 10,000 police will guard
public buildings and polling places
today in the Basque region.
The new constitution, Spain's eighth
since the first one in 1812, is the first to
be put up for public ratification. The
others were mandated by kings, non-
elected parliaments or dictators.
FRANCO'S ' constitution, which
technically has remained the law of the
land, is not enforced and will expire
automatically if the new one is ap-
proved. Late polls indicate 75 per cent
of the electorate will vote for the con-
stitution.
This fall, the first freely elected
Parliament since the 1930s civil war
overwhelmingly approved the con-
stitution to be voted on today. King
Juan Carlos called the document "an
expression of the new national accord
and fruit of general consensus," but not
everybody agrees.
Women's liberation leaders say it
guarantees equal rights and legalizes
divorce, but avoids the issue of abortion
and was framed by "macho" men in
the Cortes, Spain's Parliament.
"IT IS WORSE than our gran-
dmothers had in 1931," says the plat-
form of organized feminists.
Ecologists claim it is too vague about
the state's responsibility to protect the
environment and permits "dangerous"
development of nuclear power stations.
Homosexuals claim it leaves them out-
side the law.
Rightists say the constitution is a sell-
out to the socialists and communists
and would destroy national unity by
allowing regional autonomy.
TENS OF thousands of rightists
wearing "Vote No" buttons turned out
in Madrid at a Nov. 20 rally marking
the third anniversary of Franco's death.
Leaders denounced the new con-
stitution as anti-Spanish, anti-Catholic,
Marxist-atheist, likely to encourage
terrorists by abolishing the death
penalty and certain to fill newsstands
with pornography by giving freedom to
the press.
The right wing's stand is supported
by two national newspapers. A handful
of military officers hatched an abortive
plot in Madrid to overthrow the gover-
nment three weeks ago.
But the constitution has the backing
of Premier Adolfo Suarez' ruling Cen-
ter Party, the Socialist opposition, the
Communists and the rightist Alliance
Popular, the four major parties.
Although the constitution separates
church and state, allows divorce and
civil marriage, Spain's powerful Con-
ference of Catholic Bishops says
Spaniards should vote according to
* their conscience. The only real church
criticism is from the conservative
primate of Spain, Cardinal Marcelo
Gonzalez Martin, the archibishop of
Toledo.
The constitution keeps the king as
chief of state and head of the armed
forces but takes away his power to ap-
point premiers.
Gator Bowl fever? o'*
Nine-year-old Andy Ownes, right, leaps but just misses a rifled touchdown pass,
while Mike Koehler, left, defends. The chilly Dayton, Ohio weather didn't stop
the youngsters from enjoying one of the last snow-free friendly football games.
Prof. says Israel
s
right to exist key
By JOE VARGO
The existence of the stage of Israel,
not the Palestinian refugee issue, is the
main stumbling block to a permanent
Middle East peace agreement, accor-
ding to Yitschak Ben Gad, a visting
Israeli professor. r
Ben Gad, professor of history at the
University of Tel-Aviv, expressed that
opinion last night to a small audience of
10 peirons in an Undergraduate
Library conference room.
"the main issue in the Middle East is
Israel's right to exist," he said. "Every
Arab state has the right to not only
exist, but to flourish and prosper. The
leaders of the Arab countries want to
deny Israel that right, even though it
has been accepted by the United
Nations."
BEN GAD SAID Israel feels no
hostility towards Palestinians living on
the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"Jewish people have mercy," he
said. "We don't want to see anyone suf-
fer. We have even gone so far as to offer
an autonomous state to these people.
This state would be 90 per cent in-
dependent. The only matters it would
not decide would be those concerning
the military.'l
Israel, he said, would decide such
matters.
"WE WANT TO help the
Palestinians," Ben Gad said, "but we
don't want their state to be detrimental
to Israel."
Ben Gad also criticized Arab coun-
tries for making the plight of
Palestinian refugees a major issue.
"Palestinian refugees are a minor
problem,"he 'said. 'In fact, pve§80 pe;
cent of the Palestinians in' the Middl.
East live on Palestinian soil. Thee
make up 60 per cent of the population of
Jordan." There aren't a great deal of
refugees, and the number of refugees is
small according to Ben Gad. Many
Palestinians living in Israel have no
desire to return home "becaue they en-
joy a higher standing of living in Israel
than they would in their native lands."
BEN GAD ADDED that while the
world knows mostly of the Palestinian
refugees, almost no one realizes hun-
dreda of thousands of Israeli refugees
have been forced to flee Arab lands.
"Over 700,000 Jews were expelled or
voluntarily left their Arab homelands,"
said the Israeli professor, who himself
fled his native Libya. "These refugees
came to Israel. Israel fed and clothed
them with her meager resources."
He added that if Arab countries were
willing to do a similar thing for
Palestinian refugees, tensions in the
Middle East would be greatly reduced.
Kenworthy announces
mayoral candidacy
(Continued from Page 1)
question, as well as on how well Belcher
kept his sweeping campaign promises
from April. "I think it's incumbent
upon him to show how he's realized the
expectations, he's raised," Kenworthy
said. '
KENWORTHY ALSO said citizens
''are surprised that Republicans would
lead the city to its first budget deficit in
the five years that Sy Murray has been
administrator."
As an alternative to the current
Republican government, Kenworthy
promised to "reestablish a political and
social contract with the citizens." Ken-
worthy said that in the current anti-
government mood and the raised ex-
pectations, it is essential that "public
officials go back to their constituents to
determine what services are needed, at
what cost, for what benefit, and for how
many people."
This platform complements the at-
tack on the Republicans for holding an
illegal closed public meeting. The
theme for the Democrats in April, then,
will be a promise to bring citizens into
the decision-making process while they
accuse Republicans of consciously
trying to exclude citizen input. Or as
Democrats turned to Kenworthy as one
who could unify the party and salvage
some of the April losses. Kenworthy
said, "I wouldn't be running for mayor
if I didn't think I had a good chance tai
unify the party" and beat Belcher in'
April.
"First, there are 7,000 more voters
this year because of the gubernatorial
race. Registration is up and -that
generally helps the Democrats," h(
said. Second, Kenworthy said there wag
"personal enthusiasm" among rank
and-file Democrats about his can-
didacy. "Third, I don't think Belcher
has much been able to broaden his sups
port. His record has not been one to
rally the whole city behind him."
KENWORTHY promised to bring a
"political administration" to city hall
that would "set the tone" for the city.
He added quickly that he did not mean a
new administrator to replace Ad-
ministrator Murray, the city's
bureaucratic head. "Mr. Murray is a
very bright person and he has brought
financial solidity to the city," Kenwor-
thy said. "But after a while you
get.. ." he said, stopping in mid-
sentence.
Hadd h2atgeIv_ "T'm n ot onino