Israel’s new government will move to decriminalize contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told an Italian newspaper that the government would propose legislation, when the Knesset reconvenes in October, lifting the six-year ban on contacts between Israelis and the PLO.
But in an interview with the Rome newspaper Il Messaggero, Peres played down the prospect of any future meeting with PLO leader Yasir Arafat.
“We don’t need theatrics,” Peres said. “We need progress. I understand why (Arafat) is interested (in a meeting) but I don’t see what benefit there would be.”
In Jerusalem, the Justice Ministry said it was drafting an amendment to the 1986 law forbidding contact with terrorist organizations, including the PLO.
“We have a deep obligation to change this stupid law,” Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin told Israel Radio.
“Everyone thinks this law is idiotic, that you cannot meet with someone connected with the Palestine National Council (a PLO body) even if he is a professor in a Washington university.”
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