Peace Activist to Skip Palestinian Meeting

JERUSALEM —  Israeli peace activist Abie Nathan said Tuesday that he is turning down an invitation to broadcast live reports from the Palestine National Council, due to meet in Algiers this weekend, because the trip would cost him too much money.

“It’s a shame not to go, but the cost would be exorbitant, some $20,000 to $25,000. We just can’t afford it,” said Nathan, a Bombay-born Jew who runs Israel’s Voice of Peace radio station.

“Besides, I’m in enough trouble here already,” he added.

Nathan caused an uproar in Israel in September when he met Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in Tunis and Strasbourg, defying an Israeli law against contacts with the PLO.