PLO Official Asks Recognition From U.S.

The U.S. government cannot solve the conflict in the Middle East as long as it refuses to listen to the Palestinian side, the former director of the Washington-based Palestine Information Office told a crowd of more than 100 people at a panel discussion at Northeastern University Law School last night.

Hassan Abdul Rahman said the U.S. has consistently ignored the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in its negotiations, adding that he thought there is a "lack of seriousness in the U.S. approach to the PLO."

"Not once had [the United States government] made a balanced statement on the Arab-Israeli conflict," Rahman added.

Rahman said that such biases in U.S. foreign policy can be seen in the recently passed Grassley law, which would shut down the PLO Observer Mission at the United Nations.

The Palestinian native called the law "the most dangerous legislation in the history of law affecting foreign policy."

Rahman lost his job last December when the Washington D.C.-based information office was closed by order of the State Department.

Another panelist John Brittain, vice president of the National Lawyers' Guild, said the bill was also a violation of First Amendment rights. The Grassley law is currently under appeal in federal court.

Brittain said the legislation makes it illegal for anyone to "receive anything of value" from the PLO or to do anything that would "act at the behest of" the PLO.

Rahman also said he was skeptical about Secretary of State George Schultz's upcoming negotiations in the Middle East. He said Schultz would meet only Palestinians from the occupied territories in Israel, promoting a false "fragmentation" of the Palestinian people.

The former director said Schultz's main objective is to circumvent the Palestinian uprising, adding that "the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not going to be solved in Washington."