Rabin Suggests West Bank Mayors Comprise Part of Jordanian Delegation at Geneva Conference

A suggestion that the mayors of West Bank towns comprise part of the Jordanian delegation to a reconvened Geneva conference was raised by Premier Yitzhak Rabin at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, it was learned today. Rabin said he would have no objections if the mayors participated, presumably representing the Palestinians on the West Bank.

The matter came up when Minister of Tourism Moshe Kol of the Independent Liberal Party proposed that the Cabinet devote a session to the Palestinian issue. Rabin rejected that idea and reiterated Israel’s basic policy with respect to the Palestinians–namely that there must be no third state between Jordan and Israel, that there will be no negotiations with terrorist organizations and that the Jordanian delegation to Geneva could include Palestinians.

These principles have been stated by Israeli leaders before. But Rabin’s remarks yesterday were the first by an Israeli leader to specify who Israel thought the Palestinian representatives should be. The mayors are the only elected representatives of the Palestinians recognized by Israel and the proposal was consistent with Israel’s efforts in recent years to encourage West Bank leadership as a counter-force to the Palestine Liberation Organization.

But it is recognized here that the West Bank does not exist in a political vacuum. Any decision to transform the local municipal leaders into political representatives of the West Bank population would have to have the support of Jordan, the PLO or both.

SKEPTICAL REACTIONS FROM WEST BANK

Initial reactions from the West Bank today were skeptical. East Jerusalem sources told reporters that the only West Bank mayors likely to support the idea were those favorably inclined toward the Hashemite regime in Jordan and after the municipal elections last May they were a distinct minority. Furthermore, the sources said, it is uncertain that the Geneva conference will be reconvened and uncertain that Jordan would participate.

A delegation of mayors incorporated into a Jordanian delegation would also mean, in effect; a reversal of the Rabat summit decision of 1974 that designated the PLO the sole representative of the Palestinian people.

Nevertheless, the Rabat conference’s decisions have been limited by political realities. Jordan continues to play a major role on the West Bank and a decision to include mayors in its delegation to Geneva is not far-fetched. It is also possible that PLO sympathizers could thus slip into Geneva by the back door. At the moment, however, official Arab policy demands PLO participation at Geneva as a separate entity.