Sharon Begins Meetings with West Bank Leaders

Hilmi Hanoun, Mayor of the West Bank town of Tulkarm, told Defense Minister Ariel Sharon that the West Bank and Gaza Strip Palestinians completely reject Premier Menachem Begin’s autonomy plan and regard the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole representative of the Palestinians.

Hanoun met with Sharon last week, and was understood to have been the first West Bank leader in a series of talks the Defense Minister is having with them. He is the only one so far to have admitted to the conversation. Defense Ministry officials decline to discuss the meetings, and according to reports the Arabs concerned have promised not to disclose the subjects discussed or even admit to the fact of the meetings.

The type of statements made by Hanoun in radio interviews today, describing his talk with Sharon, have till now been banned by the authorities, who regarded them as sufficient to detain the men concerned.

Hanoun said: “We told him (Sharon) that we completely rejected the autonomy plan from the beginning, and were therefore not prepared to discuss details with him…

“We talked about the general feelings on the West Bank. We told him we were against the confiscation of Arab land and the building of Jewish settlements. We insisted that the PLO is the only representative of the Palestine people and any solution that the PLO accepts will be accepted by us.

“But we also told him we do not represent the Palestinians. We might be the medium between the PLO and the Israel government, if Israel agrees to make negotiations with the PLO.” Hanoun said Sharon had replied that the PLO was a terrorist organization.

Sharon is reported to have met also with Gaza Mayor Rashad A-Shawwa, East Jerusalem personality Anwar An-Khatib and others. Bethlehem Mayor Elias Freij has denied reports that he has met with Sharon. The military Governor of Nablus met Nablus Mayor Bassam Shaka for some four hours today, in what was believed to have been an effort to get Shaka to agree to meet Sharon.

Asked what he thought of the new Defense Minister after their meeting, Hanoun said that Sharon had promised to make life easier for the Palestinians but only his future actions would prove that there really was a new policy. “His acts will prove whether he means something or not. What we are after in the West Bank is first of all a stop to confiscating lands and building settlements. If this is stopped we may believe that he is going to change the policy of the past government,” Hanoun said.

But the iron fist showed through Sharon’s recently-declared velvet glove policy even while he was talking to the West Bank leaders. Police yesterday arrested 77 West Bank Arabs for spending the night in Israel at a work camp of 4,000 volunteers organized by the

Nazareth town council. They were transported back across the “Green Line” to Jenin, where they are to be charged with sleeping over in Israel without a special permit.

Those arrested were among volunteers including Israeli Arabs and Jews engaged in voluntary road construction work within the municipal area. West Bank Arabs are not allowed to remain in Israel from I A.M. to 7 A.M. without a special permit.

The Nazareth council complained that the detention action had been taken because the Nazareth council is regarded as pro-PLO, while no action is taken against thousands of West Bank Arabs who remain overnight in Tel Aviv and other towns where they are employed, sometimes unlawfully and not through labor exchanges, on construction and sanitation work.