Israeli peace activist Abie Nathan, who recently ended a 40-day hunger strike to protest an Israeli law banning contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization, has apparently broken the law again by meeting over the weekend width PLO leader Yasir Arafat.
But this time, some of Nathan’s traditional supporters condemned the netting, which took place in Tunis.
But this time, some of Nathan’s traditional supporters condemned the meeting, which took place in Tunis.
Four prominent members of the political left, who have said they consider the prohibitive law “bad, undemocratic and foolish,” have nonetheless described Nathan’s latest act as foolish and professed support for the law until such time as it is abolished.
In interviews with Israel Radio, Amnon Rubinsten of the Center-Shinui Movement, Shulamit Aloni of the Citizens Rights Movement, Haim Ramon of Labor add Haim Oron of Mapam agreed that the law must be obeyed so long as it remains in effect.
The 64-year-old Nathan, who served four months of a seven-month prison term last year for a 1989 meeting with Arafat, was unable to change Israeli policy by his highly publicized hunger strike, which he finally abandoned at President Chaim Herzog’s personal request.
Nathan ended the fast by declaring his readiness to go to jail again And he very well may, considering that he has a three-month suspended sentence over his head and is scheduled to go on trial in September for one of his other meetings with the PLO chief.
ARAFAT SPEAKS OF CONCESSIONS
Police inspector General Ya’acov Terner told the Cabinet on Sunday that Nathan would be detained for questioning as soon as he returns to Israel.
Geula Cohen of the Tehiya party and others on the far right are demanding Nathan’s immediate arrest and a stiff sentence.
And now his previous support team is questioning Nathan’s latest meeting with Arafat. Rubinstein, who called the PLO chief “that clown,” said Nathan’s latest meeting with Arafat could do nothing to advance the peace process.
Aloni, noting that Nathan always rejected advice, even form supporters, said she thinks Nathan is driven by an “uncontrollable impulse” and “general frustration.”
Ramon and Oron agreed that Nathan has good intentions but say they are badly carried out. Peace cannot be pursued by breaking the law, Oron said.
In Tunis, meanwhile, Nathan said he met Arafat “together with other journalists” and presented him with a list of questions.
He said he would have a second meeting with the PLO chief later Sunday to get his replies and hoped they would show the PLO genuinely wants peace with Israel.
According to Nathan, the PLO leader told him the Palestinians were prepared to make more concessions.
Nathan was head of a group that was supposed to have met with Arafat in Genera on June 21. That meeting was canceled shortly before it had been scheduled to take place because of the Israeli group’s inability to find an official international body willing to sponsor the meeting.
A meeting with Arafat not under the aegis of an official organization exposes Israelis to prison terms for violation the Israeli law.
The Geneva-based World Ecumenical Council, which opposed Israeli policies, a spokesman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
(JTA correspondent Tamar Levy in Geneva contributed to this report.)
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
