Israel offered to allow burial in Hebron of the town’s former mayor, Fahed Kawasme, in exchange for four Israeli soldiers missing in Lebanon for more than a year, it was disclosed here yesterday.
The offer was relayed to Amman, where Kawasme was assassinated last Saturday, apparently with the intention that the Jordanian authorities would pass it on to the Palestine Liberation Organization. But there was no official response from Amman where Kawasme was buried yesterday.
According to Shmuel Goren, coordinator of government affairs in the West Bank, who disclosed the attempted trade-off, Kawasme’s burial is an indication that there is no deal. Premier Shimon Peres, replying to questions in the Knesset today, said Israel’s offer still stands.
Kawasme was deposed in 1980 and deported for alleged pro-PLO activities. At the time of his death he was a ranking member of the PLO’s executive council. His killers are believed to be PLO dissidents apposed to Yasir Arafat. The Israeli authorities had reportedly refused a request from the Kawasme family that the remains be returned for burial in Hebron.
Goren disclosed that the authorities informed the family that Israel was prepared to grant their request in return for the missing soldiers.
ISRAELIS MISSING FOR MORE THAN A YEAR
Three of them, Zecharya Baumel, Yehuda Katz and Zvi Feldman, have been missing since they abandoned their tanks in the battle of Sultan Yaacub in the Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon on June 11, 1982. The fourth soldier, Samir As’ad, who served in the Sidon area, has been missing since April, 1983.
Israel had reason to believe that the soldiers are still alive or, at least, that their bodies are in the hands of the PLO, on the basis of information brought back from Amman a month ago by Israeli journalist Amnon Kapelyuk.
Kapelyuk, who covered the meeting of the Palestine National Council (PNC) in the Jordanian capital, reported that PLO chief Arafat had offered to return the bodies of eight or nine Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon in exchange for PLO prisoners in Israel’s hands.
Peres, discussing the matter in the Knesset today, was skeptical. He said this was not the first time the PLO spread rumors which could cause anguish to Israeli families of missing soldiers. Arab sources in Amman said the PLO did not seem to have any knowledge of the four missing men sought by Israel.
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