In a historic reversal of government policy, Israel has decided to extend official recognition to the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres made the announcement Thursday following a series of secret meetings in Paris at which high-level Israeli and PLO officials hammered away at the language of a mutual recognition pact.
In Tunis, PLO leader Yasir Arafat signed a letter Thursday night to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin renouncing violence and stating that the PLO “recognizes the right of Israel to exist in peace and security.”
Rabin, in turn, was due to formalize Israel’s recognition of the PLO by signing a letter to Arafat on Friday morning saying that the Jewish state now regards the PLO as “the representative of the Palestinian people.”
Rabin had originally been expected to sign the letter to Arafat late Thursday, but the move was delayed pending the arrival here of Norwegian Foreign Minister Johan Jorgen Holst, who helped mediate the Israeli-PLO negotiations and was to deliver the letter from Arafat.
In Washington, the United States appeared to be close to resuming its own dialogue with the PLO, which was suspended in 1990 following an attempted terrorist attack on Israel by one of the organization’s factions.
President Clinton had planned to make a major announcement on the Middle East on Thursday, but it was later canceled. Sources said the administration decided to wait until the Israeli-PLO recognition pact had been finalized.
But the administration may not be prepared yet to formally recognize the PLO’s legitimacy. State Department spokesman Mike McCurry told reporters Thursday that resuming the U.S. dialogue with the PLO is “a much different question” than “establishing some formal recognition.”
APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY IN ISRAEL
Here in Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Peres’ announcement of Israel’s decision to recognize the PLO was made after the pact was approved unanimously Thursday by the 10-member “inner Cabinet” of senior ministers.
The ministers later hailed the historic development and expressed hope about the changes it would spur in the region.
The Knesset, which was expected to approve the pact, was scheduled to vote on the matter after Rosh Hashanah.
In Tunis, the PLO executive committee endorsed the pact Thursday, authorizing Arafat to sign the letter recognizing Israel.
Peres was expected to fly to Washington for an official signing ceremony with the PLO on Monday. The two parties were also expected to sign an agreement that would grant Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho as a preliminary step toward extending Palestinian authority throughout the territories.
It was not clear who would represent the PLO at the ceremony, which was scheduled for 11a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
The Israel-PLO pact was finalized in secret negotiations that were held this week in Paris.
The negotiations involved the same top officials from Norway, Israel and the PLO who together worked out the preliminary accord on limited Palestinian self-rule in the territories.
Among those present in Paris were Norwegian Foreign Minister Holst; Uri Savir, director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, and his legal adviser, Yoel Zinger; and Ahmed Khoury, better known as Abu Alaa, chief of the PLO’s finance department.
The final text of the recognition pact was drafted Thursday morning in the Hotel Bristol, a stone’s throw from French President Francois Mitterrand’s offices at the Elysee Palace.
Mitterrand appeared live on French television to salute “the extraordinary physical, moral and intellectual courage of those men” who reached the agreement on mutual recognition.
The letters that are being exchanged between Rabin and Arafat meet each leader’s conditions for mutual recognition.
‘NEW ERA,’ OR ‘BLACK DAY’?
Housing Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the PLO letter and the changes in the organization’s covenant mark a clear recognition of Israel’s right to live in peace and security.
He said the PLO leadership’s call to its people to suspend terrorism and violence signifies a new chapter for Israel.
Minister of Culture Shulamit Aloni, who heads the dovish Meretz bloc, called the development the “beginning of a new era” and said she was going to celebrate.
But opposition politicians were enraged and denounced the agreement as treacherous.
Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “black day for the State of Israel and a happy day for its enemies.”
Tsomet party leader Rafael Eitan said the agreement recognizes an entity bent on the destruction of Israel.
But Peres said the agreement has “great historic meaning.” Saying he is “convinced we are doing the right thing,” Peres added, “We think it is going to revolutionize relations between the Arab world and the Jewish world, between the Palestinians and the State of Israel.”
In Washington, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which had lobbied for years against granting legitimacy to the PLO, issued a statement saying its leaders “warmly welcome the historic decision” of the PLO to renounce terror and recognize Israel.
“We believe that it is appropriate and within the intention of the law for the United States to reopen a dialogue with the PLO under these changed circumstances,” the influential lobby said in a noticeable shift of policy.
In New York, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations was more cautious. It called the pact “a hopeful augury of reconciliation between two peoples who have lived in tension and hostility for nearly a century.”
(Contributing to this report was JTA correspondent Michel Di Paz in Paris.)
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