The West Bank and the Gaza Strip were relatively quiet Tuesday, as leaders of the “intifada,” in their latest pamphlet, called on the Palestine Liberation Organization to issue a political agenda that would be acceptable to the Western world.
The leaflet called on the PLO to remove the ambiguities from its policy and to produce a clear and comprehensive program at the upcoming Palestine National Council meeting in Tunisia.
The U.S. Consul General in East Jerusalem, Phillip Wilcox, denied press reports Tuesday that he had met secretly last week with Palestinian leaders on the West Bank.
The reports say Wilcox met secretly with West Bank personalities and told them that the U.S. rejected the notion of basing a settlement on the 1947 U.N. partition resolution, and supported instead the idea of bartering land for peace.
Meanwhile, 14 pro-Palestinian aides to U.S. lawmakers began a five-day tour of Israel, but refused to talk to Israeli-based newsmen. They even refused to give their names, apparently on the orders of their bosses in Washington.
Their trip is sponsored by the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
The congressional aides indicated that “errors” made in the first draft of their itinerary, such as scheduled visits to the Knesset and the Yad Vashem memorial on days and at times when these are closed, would be corrected to enable them to “hear both sides properly.”
Other “errors” included “planned visits” to the Ketziot detention camp in the Negev, without first having obtained IDF permission, and meetings with Israeli leaders who have so far not been approached for appointments.
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