U.N. Assembly Condemns U.S. Move on PLO Mission

The General Assembly of the United Nations today voted overwhelmingly to condemn a U.S. move to shut the PLO Mission, and PLO lawyers prepared to fight the U.S. move in court.

The assembly, in its second emergency session on the Palestine Liberation Organization, voted 148 to 2 to reject the U.S. action. The resolution also called on the United States to abide by the international U.N. Headquarters Treaty, which allows foreign missions to operate.

The United States and Israel voted against the resolution, the third of its kind in three months.

U.S. Ambassador Herbert S. Okun, the deputy permanent representative, said the Justice Department is obliged by law to enforce the anti-terrorist legislation, which would close the mission.

Israeli Statement

But he said the United States will take no further steps to close the mission until a court has ruled on the U.S. lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. (Story on Page 4.)

Israeli Ambassador Johanan Bein, the deputy permanent representative, told the assembly that the PLO has been “the principal terrorist organization of our time” and that it rejects the central U.N. principle of peaceful settlement of disputes.

On Tuesday the PLO accused the United States of engaging in “financial terrorism” by seeking a court order to close the mission and to force the PLO to transfer its bank funds out of the United States.

The closure of the mission is required under the 1987 Anti-Terrorism Act, which found that the PLO and its affiliates are a terrorist organization responsible for numerous violent incidents, including the murder of an American citizen during the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985.

Crisis in U.S.-U.N. Relations

“The only asset we have in this country is the building we live in. Maybe they want me to live on the street, but this would not be the first time the Palestinians become refugees,” said Zehdi Labib Terzi, chief of the PLO Mission.