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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
 
 
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"I am not a journalist. I have come here to protest the treatment of Israeli prisoners."

"May I come and interview you at your hotel?"

She arrived in a few minutes, small, fortyish, long hair, very dark, dressed in pants, holding her car keys. She is an anti-Israel activist and teaches French literature at Damascus University. She was accompanied by Wal Haggar, also a writer. We talked over lunch in the hotel bar. I gave her a copy of my message. At that moment a thin man of about forty-five came to our table. "Madame Klarsfeld, I am Salah Kabany, Director of Information at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs." He handed me a telegram from AFP stating the purpose of my visit and accurately transcribing my message.

"What was the tone of the conversation?"
Courteous. I had the feeling that the Syrians had realized there was concern for me abroad. That was my best protection. If I had not been known and if the foreign press had not taken an interest in me, the Syrian attitude would no doubt have been different. This was the reaction I had hoped for; I preferred a confrontation with politicians to one with police.

"What did you talk about?"
It was a dialogue of the deaf. The abyss between our positions was not to be bridged. For example:

The execution of Israeli prisoners on the Golan Heights – "Pure Zionist propaganda. The papers shown to the press by the Israelis are faked."

The condition of surviving prisoners – "We wish Syrian prisoners in Israel were treated as well as the Israelis in Syria. If you want to observe them, that can be arranged, but it will take some time – two or three weeks."

"Can you give me some assurance that I will see other prisoners than those already seen by the press?"

"No. But in one or two months their situation may be negotiated."

No answer as to the number of prisoners.

As to their physical condition – "If we have not allowed other prisoners to be seen, that's because many of the captured are pilots who were wounded. If we let them be seen in that condition it could be thought that we had mistreated them." On the recognition of the State of Israel – "Israel may be recognized anywhere, in Guinea, in Alaska, in Germany, but not here."
    
   
 
WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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