Israel’s Foreign Ministry has begun to prepare a detailed blueprint for conducting Palestinian elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported Tuesday.
The plans are going ahead despite unresolved obstacles to the election scenario and reports that Washington may be losing faith in the Israeli peace initiative, which it has actively supported until now.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who launched the initiative last spring, appeared to indicate Tuesday that he expects the next step in the process to be delayed.
That step is a meeting U.S. Secretary of State James Baker proposed to hold in Washington this month with the Israeli and Egyptian foreign ministers.
Shamir said he favors the meeting, but that since it would require meticulous preparation, it might have to be postponed beyond January.
The purpose of the three-way meeting is to set terms for preliminary Israeli-Palestinian talks, which Egypt has offered to host.
A visit to Washington last month by Cabinet Secretary Elyakim Rubinstein apparently failed to produce any progress toward resolving several Israeli concerns.
In Washington, the State Department’s deputy spokesman, Richard Boucher, said last Friday that “the meeting is still planned,” but he could not announce a date.
BAKER REPORTEDLY LOSING HOPE
A report from Washington on Tuesday indicated that Baker despaired of such a meeting ever taking place. Diplomatic sources quoted him as telling the visiting foreign minister of Norway, Kjell Bondevik, that he may drop the initiative if prospects for a breakthrough continue to fade.
Nevertheless, a team of Foreign Ministry officials here, assisted by an expert from the Interior Ministry, is working on a comprehensive plan for implementing Palestinian elections, which will be submitted to Foreign Minister Moshe Arens.
According to the Ha’aretz report, the plan divides the West Bank and Gaza Strip into election districts. The terms of reference, however, rule out participation in the elections by Arab residents of East Jerusalem, Ha’aretz said.
That is consistent with Likud policy, which rejects the participation of East Jerusalem Arabs, on grounds that it would prejudice Israel’s claim to full sovereignty over East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in 1967.
Labor’s position is that East Jerusalem Arabs may vote if the polling stations are located outside the city limits.
But the issue poses one of the major obstacles to the proposed Israeli-Palestinian dialogue in Cairo. Another fundamental question is who will represent the Palestinians at the dialogue.
As with the Jerusalem franchise issue, the Israeli government is split along party lines over whether to allow Palestinians from outside the territories to participate in the Cairo talks.
Israel has rejected any role for the Palestine Liberation Organization, even an indirect one. Likud sees Palestinians from outside the territories as being connected with the PLO.
While the United States says it is not pressing for contacts with the PLO at this stage, the Americans have acknowledged in their discussions with Egypt that the PLO, in fact, plays a role on the Palestinian side.
Another obstacle to be overcome is the agenda of the Cairo dialogue. Israel wants it limited to working out the modalities of the Palestinian elections. The United States would allow either side to introduce other issues.
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.
