1,000 British Travel Agents Won’t Attend Israel Convention
More than 1,000 British travel agents have pulled out of a tourism convention in Jerusalem after receiving protests and a boycott threat from the Palestine Liberation Organization, a spokesman said Friday.
About 3,000 delegates had been expected at the four-day convention of the Assn. of British Travel Agents opening Monday, but just under 1,700 have registered, said association spokesman Martin Symington.
The PLO’s London office sent letters to all prospective delegates appealing to them to stay away and threatened to mobilize 2 million Muslims in Britain into boycotting travel companies that attend.
“We do not take lightly attempts to belittle or ignore the sufferings of our people,” the PLO letter said, referring to the 11-month-old Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The convention was to have been held in Torremolinos, but the venue was switched because a new convention center in the Spanish resort had not been completed, Symington said.
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