HEAD OF OIF SAYS HE FAVORS ENTRY OF ISRAEL

Headed by President Roger Cukierman, the delegation included General Director Haim Musicant and Executive Bureau members Jean-Pierre Allali and Raoul Ghozlan.

Founded on the sharing of the French language and on common values, the OIF currently comprises 51 states and governments representing 500 million people.

Member countries include France, Canada, Belgium, Tunisia, the Ivory Coast, Moldavia, Laos and Vanuatu.


A major country, Israel, is missing from this learned gathering, in spite of the fact that 20 per cent of its population is French speakers.

Abdou Diouf told president Cukierman, who expressed surprise at the exclusion of Israel, that he strongly favored Israel joining the organization. However, the terms of membership specify that new candidates receive the unanimous support of the members. However, the Lebanon is opposed to Israel joining, claiming Israeli occupation of its territory. Not only did Israel evacuate southern Lebanon many years ago but this argument only applies to the «farms of Shebaa» whose sovereignty could be claimed by Syria and must therefore be refuted.

A proposal by Canadian Francophone Minister Jacques Saada to simultaneously enlarge the organization to include Israel and the Palestinian Authority was discussed and could provide an honorable solution.

President Diouf assured his guests that he was keen for Israel to join the OIF and that he would do his utmost to achieve this. This could happen in Rumania, a country friendly towards Israel, where the next Francophone summit will be held.