Opposed To Zionism

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31096, 27 June 1966, Page 13

Opposed To Zionism

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) NEW YORK, June 26. King Feisal of Saudi Arabia emphasised today that political Zionism and not Judaism as a religion had been the target of remarks he made at a Washington press conference on Wednesday, the “New York Times” news service reported.

The Arabian Monarch was reported bv an aide to have explained his comments during an interview with a group of Arab reporters. Ambassador Anas Yassin, chief of the Saudi Arabian Public Relations Bureau, later

quoted 62-year-old King Feisal as having told the group: ‘We are not against the religion of the Jews but against the Zionists and the Jews who help the Zionists.” It was the King’s first comment on the question of Israel since his controversial remark in Washington which led Mayor John Lindsay and Governor Nelson Rockefeller to cancel their receptions and ceremonial meetings with the Royal visitor during his weeklong stay in the United States. Mr Yassin said that during the interview, the King had explained that his nation bore no malice to Jews who were native Palestinians before establishment of the Israeli State in 1948, A.A.P.-Reuter reported. “Those Jews who were in Palestine have a right to stay

there, but the Jews who came from' outside are intruders,” Mr Yassin quoted the King as saying. Mr Yassin said that in addressing the Arab reporters, the King had first repeated the remark he made in Washington. This had been in reply to a question asking him to explain the Arab boycott of American concerns that trade with Israel.

Visibly ruffled, the King said at the time: “Unfortunately, Jews support Israel and we consider those who provide assistance to our enemies as our own enemies.” The remark immediately stirred a storm of protests from various Jewish civic and religious organisations which contended that the King's statement had been unbecoming to a visitor of State.