Israel took a first step Wednesday toward abolishing the law that bans meetings with members of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The Justice Ministry distributed to the various ministries its first draft of a bill to amend the law.
The present law forbids any contacts with the PLO, regardless of the purpose of the meeting. It is for this reason that peace activist Abie Nathan was jailed twice, and each time he swore he would fight to change the law.
Last week, a delegation of six Israeli Arabs returned from Tunis after meeting with PLO leaders, despite saying beforehand that they would not break the law.
On returning to Israel, one member of the delegation, Knesset member Hashem Mahamid of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, told reporters he had met with Arafat and Nayef Hawatmeh of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Mahamid said he felt no compunction about breaking the law as it was “undemocratic and unjust.”
Under the new bill, the main legal test of a meeting with a member of a terrorist organization would be intent. Meetings whose purpose it was to harm state security would continue to be considered criminal.
The proposed amendment relates only to meetings with representatives of terrorist organizations. Other parts of the law, such as the ban on raising funds for an outlawed organization, or the ban on expressing solidarity with a terrorist group, will not be altered.
The law banning any contacts with officials of the Palestinian organization was passed six years ago and has come under considerable public criticism since.
Amending the law was one of the promises the Labor Party made to the Arab and Communist parties during the coalition negotiations.
A few days ago, PLO leader Yasir Arafat welcomed reports on the proposed change, but urged the Israeli government to go one step further and start direct talks with the PLO.
But in a statement, the Justice Ministry stressed that this did not indicate any change in Israel’s policy not to negotiate with the PLO.
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