Black January
Sir: Despite your editorial (15 January) there were overriding arguments that Abu Daoud should never have been arrested in the first place.
Over the last few months of 1976 a series of, until now, highly secret meetings took place between representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Israeli Government under General Peled, a hero of the 1967 war. These meetings were chaired by the former French Prime Minister M. Mendes-France. They were designed to try to achieve a negotiated, peaceful and bloodless solution to the Palestinian problem, which lies at the base of any successful Middle East settlement. The arrest of Daoud put the future of these talks in grave peril—no matter what the French did with him—it was certain to upset either the Palestinians or the Israelis. As it was, Daoud. was released and Israel's reaction was swift : Franco-Israeli diplomatic relations were at breaking-point. As a result the talks will, almost certainly, not resume and a peaceful solution to the Palestinian problem is so much further away.
The only people who will benefit from the Daoud affair will be the men of violence and the extremists on both sides.
S. W. Aulsebrook Faculty of Law, University of Leeds
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