Top figures in the Israeli settler movement met secretly during the past two years with senior figures in the Palestine Liberation Organization to discuss future coexistence.
The director of the American Jewish Committee’s Israel office, Joseph Alpher, has been the moving spirit in the meetings, according to the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, which reported the story Sunday.
Alpher, appearing on Israel Television later in the day, said the disclosure of the talks was “embarrassing,” but voiced the hope such talks could one day be held publicly.
The settlement issue — as well as the status of Jerusalem, borders and security arrangements — is scheduled to be among the topics of official discussions in May, when the two sides begin holding their final status talks.
Alpher launched the meetings soon after Israel and the Palestinians agreed in 1993 on the Declaration of Principles, which outlined the steps and timetable for their subsequent agreements.
Alpher, who was at the time deputy director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, said the common denominator that brought the settler leaders and Palestinians together was their recognition that they needed to talk in order to avoid bloodshed between them in the future.
Their meetings took place both in Israel and abroad, according to the newspaper report.
Among the settler representatives were Uri Elitzur, editor of the settler weekly “Nekuda”; Yisrael Harel, a commentator and onetime chairman of the Yesha Council, which represents settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; and Rabbi Eliezer Waldman of Kiryat Arba, a former Knesset member from the right-wing Techiya Party.
Yesha officials condemned the secret talks, according to news reports.
The Palestinian conferees included Hassan Asfour, one of the original negotiators of the Declaration of Principles, and Gen. Mohammed Dahlan, head of the Palestinian security service in Gaza.
Prime Minister Shimon Peres was aware of the substance of the meetings, Ha’aretz reported.
Last week, the newspaper reported that Peres and his close ministerial aide, Yossi Beilin, are involved in secret negotiations with settlement leaders over the shape of a permanent peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Beilin has repeatedly argued that a deal can be arrived at which would enable most of the settlers to remain in their present homes.
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