US Leaders Protest Palestine Information Office Closure Order

By Richard Curtiss

Thirteen days before the Department of State extended to December 1 the compliance time in its order to close the Palestine Information Office in Washington, an unusual group of Americans visited Assistant Secretary of State John Whitehead. Whitehead has signed the Department of State's mid-September order to close the office in 30 days. Now he found himself facing 16 former high-ranking diplomats, voluntary organization executives, presidents of Arab-American organizations, and Jewish peace activists. All were protesting the closure order, which they saw as badly-timed State Department concession to irresponsible members of Congress, and also requesting that the time period be extended.

PIO Director Hasan Abdul Rahman had already challenged the legality of the order and asked for a six-month extension while the constitutional issues it raises are considered. The American Civil Liberties Union has associated itself with his case.

Whitehead assured his visitors, organized by Andrew I. Killgore, president of the American Educational Trust and former US Ambassador to Qatar, that the department would "consider seriously" extending the time period specified in the order, which was also criticized by a number of US newspapers, other groups, and individuals.

Diplomats in the group began the meeting with a semi-serious reference to the fact that in order to assume jurisdiction over the PIO, which conducts information activities on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Whitehead had first signed a State Department order granting it foreign mission status. Then he signed a second order that the office be closed in 30 days. Since it is now a recognized foreign mission, the diplomats said, the State Department should be displaying the PLO flag at its diplomatic entrance along with flags of all other countries with accredited missions in the United States.

Speaking for the group, Washington attorney Merle Thorpe, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, pointed out that the order to close an office staffed entirely by US citizens raises serious questions concerning freedom of speech and association which could not be resolved within 30 days. The arbitrary time limit and the absence of any effort by the State Department to meet with PIO officials, Thorpe said, raises the question of whether due process is being observed.

James E. Akins, former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and former director of the State Department's office of fuels and energy, noted that "there can be no peace process without the participation of the Palestinians and, with the exception of the United States, no one questions that the PLO represents the Palestinians. This action, therefore, plays into the hands of those most critical of the United States, both in the Arab states and in Israel."

Abdeen Jabara, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), cited polls by the Los Angeles Times and other organizations showing a majority of the American public supports Palestinian self-determination and the right of Palestinians to a homeland. In a current series of nation-wide debates between former Senator James Abourezk, ADC chairman, and Hyman Bookbinder, former American Jewish Congress Washington representative, a show of hands after each debate indicates that about 90 percent of each audience supports Palestinian self-determination, Abdeen said.

Talcott Seelye, former US Ambassador to Tunisia and to Syria, said there is no law preventing direct US contact with the PLO. In fact, he told Whitehead, US officials have frequently met with PLO officials for security purposes and to save lives.

When he arrived in Beirut in mid-1976 during the Lebanese civil war to assume direction of the US Embassy there following the assassination of the US ambassador and two members of his staff, Seelye said, a PLO major met him at Beirut airport and a PLO armed escort conducted him safely through the chaotic streets of West Beirut to the US embassy. The PLO provided security during his stay in the city and for the subsequent evacuation, by sea, of the embassy's American staff. From time to time, Seelye said, the PLO had conveyed warnings from its own intelligence apparatus concerning threats to US Embassy offices, homes, and personnel.

Had the US maintained its security liaison with the PLO in Lebanon, Seelye said, some 300 deaths might have been averted in two bombings of the American Embassy in Beirut and the bombing of the US Marine barracks there by Shiite extremists. PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat asked nothing in return for the protection he provided US diplomats in West Beirut over a period of several years, Seelye added.

"The process of dialogue would do a lot to open up the PLO," Seelye said. "It is extraordinarily short-sighted that we cannot maintain such a dialogue."

Jerome Segal of Washington Area Jews for an Israeli-Palestinian Peace appealed for the Department of State to use its own judgment about what is in US interests in the Middle East, rather than just acquiesce to Israeli judgments.

"There can be no lasting settlement without the acceptance of the Palestinian people," he said. "At this point only the PLO can provide that acceptance."

Segal noted also that it is Yasir Arafat who is prepared to accept the land-for-peace formula that is the basis of US Middle East policy, and the present prime minister of Israel who is not.

Jean AbiNader, President of the National Association of Arab-Americans (NAAA), told Whitehead, "We look to the State Department for a higher standard of conduct and a long-term viewpoint. We depend upon you to set standards for the Congress, which is dominated by short-term, narrow, and parochial considerations. Instead, you've compromised your own standards and viewpoints by seeking, through an executive action, to limit the damage from undesirable congressional actions to close both the Palestine Information Office in Washington and the PLO Observer Mission in New York."

Richard Curtiss, editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and former chief inspector of the US Information Agency, noted that in the 1950s and 1960s, closings of American information centers by demagogic leaders often set off destructive rounds of diplomatic actions that destroyed educational and cultural relations that had taken generations to build. He noted that the day following the State Department closure order, a news agency correspondent asked PIO Director Hasan Abdul Rahman how many information centers the US has in Arab and Muslim states. Mr. Abdul Rahman wisely declined to answer, Curtiss noted, because a round of retaliatory closures, which could affect as many as 40 American information centers in Muslim states, could jeopardize educational and cultural ties valuable to both the United States and the one-fifth of mankind who live in Islamic nations. In ignoring the temptation to retaliate, the former USIA official noted, Arab and Islamic foreign ministries are showing considerably more maturity than are the US Congress or the Department of State.

Professor Thomas Mallison, director of the international and comparative law program at George Washington University, maintained that a delay in carrying out the closure order would enable lawyers for both the State Department and the PIO to examine the legal issues the order raises thoughtfully rather than precipitately. The closure order sends the wrong political signal to the Palestinians and the Arab states, Mallison noted.

"The United States has twice unequivocally accepted the Palestinian right to self-determination," Mallison said. "The two-state solution is the lawful and practical way to implement this right."

Ellen Siegel, a founding member of Washington Area Jews for an Israeli-Palestinian Peace who was working as a nurse in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon at the time of the 1982 Israeli invasion, noted that the order seems to move the US position away from the peace that Israel as well as the Palestinians need. "We all know that Israel cannot continue the occupation and remain a democratic country," she said. "I'd like to know what the State Department has done to encourage the Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate the peace that both need so badly."

Dr. Alfred Lilienthal, founder-editor of Middle East Perspectives and a pioneer Jewish critic of Israeli lobbying in the United States, said the Department of State should be concentrating its efforts on bringing American supporters of Israel to their senses rather than on short-term tactical actions to limit the damage misguided friends of Israel are doing to the United States. Actions such as the closure order are sending negative and misleading US signals to Arab countries friendly to the US and ready to talk peace, he said.

Washington attorney Marshall Wiley, former US Ambassador to Oman, said "For the US government to take a stand that the American people cannot hear an opposing point of view is certainly contrary to my understanding of what the United States is all about."

Former Assistant Secretary of State Lucius Battle, president of the Middle East Institute and former US Ambassador to Egypt, described the negative repercussions of the State Department action in the Arab world, which has grown used to political theater from US congressmen, particularly those running for president, but which expects the State Department to set an example of reason and moderation. There are 65 organizations in the Washington area which concentrate on Middle East affairs and whose members are in constant touch with Middle Eastern leaders, Battle said. None of these American specialists were consulted about a move which has already had negative repercussions on US relations with its friends and allies in the Middle East.

Responding, Whitehead denied that the State Department action was the result of a "deal" he had made in a New York meeting with leaders of 40 major Jewish organizations, as reported in the Washington Jewish Week. The newspaper had reported that, despite strenuous opposition by Richard Murphy, assistant secretary of state for Near East and South Asian affairs, Whitehead had agreed to issue the executive order to close the Palestinian Office in Washington in exchange for agreement by the Jewish organizations to cease lobbying in Congress for bills to close the PLO Observer Mission in New York as well.

"There was no deal made because there was no one to make the deal with," Whitehead said. "We talked with enough people, however, to be quite well-assured that the steam will go out of the legislation and we believe that has happened."

"It was a difficult decision to make and it was a very close decision. It was not I alone who made it. The secretary agreed and so did the White House. But there were many distinguished people on both sides of the issue," he added.

(Whether or not it was a "deal," like most agreements with Israel's US supporters, it fell through. After the State Department took its action, a bill to close both the Washington and New York offices was attached as a rider to the State Department appropriation bill and was passed by the Senate. It is now before a conference committee seeking to resolve differences between House and Senate versions of the appropriation bill.)

Justifications for the State Department decision fell into two categories, Whitehead told the group. In the first category were "many acts of the PLO that are reprehensible," including retention on the PLO Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Front leader Abul Abbas, alleged planner of the Achille Lauro hijacking, and a PLO "connection with Abu Nidal."

Challenged on the latter charge by members of the group who pointed out that Abu Nidal broke with Yasir Arafat in the early 1970s and has threatened to assassinate the PLO chairman, Whitehead declined to elaborate except to say his statement was based upon "recent information."

"There is no indication that the office here in Washington has any involvement with those activities," Whitehead admitted.

"The second point has to do with legislation that was being brought," said Whitehead. "We were opposed to it and we continue to be. We came to believe that the legislation would have passed Congress by an overwhelming majority. We came to believe it was not veto-proof. In part our decision was a reaction to that legislation. We have explained our decision to most of the moderate Arab countries. In private, most of them were understanding. We do not want to damage our relations in the Arab world. We believe we have a lot more credibility in that part of the world as a result of our actions in the Persian Gulf. We are committed to the peace process. It is constantly in our minds. We work at it all of the time."

"We realize that we cannot be successful in furthering the peace process if we appear only as an agent of Israel. We try to position ourselves accordingly. You realize that there are forces at work which prevent us from being completely free in that role," said Whitehead.

"Our legal people in the State and Justice departments believe what we are doing is constitutional and is legally completely defensible. We did not take our action until we had completed our legal review," he added."

In subsequent discussion, ADC President Jabara recommended convocation at the Department of State of a conference on Palestinian human rights. "This would signify that the US government is not against the Palestinian people," Jabara pointed out.

"I welcome that idea," Whitehead responded. "The US government certainly does support the Palestinian people...We want to find a way by which we could express our support for the Palestinian people and their desires," he said.

NAAA President AbiNader noted that if the US government entertains any serious doubt as to the legitimacy of the PLO's claim to represent the Palestinian people, the State Department should ask the UN to conduct a plebiscite to determine whom the West Bank Palestinians want to represent them.

Whitehead maintained, however, that the PLO "does continue to involve itself in and associate with people who indulge in terrorist acts."

Dr. Mallison responded that it is "unfortunate that this apparent double standard on terrorism exists."

Whitehead responded: "We condemn terrorism wherever it occurs. Maybe we aren't as even-handed as we should be, but we try to be as even-handed as we possibly can be."

Concluding the meeting, which lasted for 75 minutes, Whitehead again informed former Ambassador Killgore that the Department of State "will give some consideration" to the suggestion to extend the time period specified in the PIO closure order and thanked the group for its opinions. "You ought to press forcefully," he said "for more such meetings."

Other participants in the meeting were: Dr. John H. Davis, chairman of the American Educational Trust, former commissioner general of the UN Refugee Works Agency, and former assistant secretary of agriculture; Peter Gubser, president of American Near East Refugee Aid; and Alain McNamara, vice president of AMIDEAST.