RIYADH, 23 January — Top officials from a British pressure group have called on Saudi Arabia to counter an Israeli-inspired media campaign against the Kingdom.
"The success of the Israeli lobby against the Saudis is mainly due to the relative weakness of the lobby working on our side," Dr. Ghada Karmi, joint vice chairman of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU), told a press conference here yesterday.
A four-member CAABU delegation, led by Robert Jackson, MP and CAABU joint chairman, arrived here on Monday from Abu Dhabi for talks with senior government officials on the anti-Saudi campaign in the UK and the need for damage-control exercise in that regard.
Other members of the team include Derek Wyatt, MP, Dr. Karmi, Hisham El-Solh, member of the CAABU executive, and Dr. Noel Brehony, member of CAABU management council. The delegation is the first-ever CAABU team to visit the Kingdom since its establishment in 1965.
Jackson said they felt encouraged by the response in the Kingdom. It has left open the scope for further discussions, which will take place over the next few weeks.
Jackson said they met with Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Sayed, media adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Manie, minister of state, and members of the Arab Thought Foundation launched by Prince Bandar ibn Khaled Al-Faisal.
Dr. Karmi said a number of organizations in Britain have been actively involved in promoting the Israeli case. CAABU, she pointed out, has been finding it difficult to counter the hostile propaganda campaign heavily funded by the Israeli lobby. She said the events following Sept. 11 last year have changed the attitude and perceptions in the UK. "We have to take it into account and work hard to do something about it. We just can’t leave it like this. It is crucially important, since Saudi Arabia is being targeted and subjected to abuse and attacks."
She said the Arab world should use their resources in trying to project a positive image of the Arabs in the western media, which has been manipulated by the Jewish lobby to its advantage.
Asked to what extent their organization had been effective against the anti-Arab Israeli campaign, Jackson said there has been a perceptible shift in public opinion. "During the last 30 years public opinion on the Palestinian question, for example, has moved away from a position of sympathy and identification with Israel to a position of sympathy and identification with the Palestinians. CAABU played a part in bringing about the shift."
While justifying the recent legislative measures in Britain to counter any terrorist activity, Jackson said that at the same time there was public concern that the anti-terrorism measures would result in a permanent shift in the balance of power between the government and the individual.
