Israeli-plo Pact on Gaza-jericho Contains Concessions by Both Sides

The agreement that Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization were expected to sign in Cairo this week is the result of significant concessions from both sides.

In reaching the agreement, Israel granted some PLO demands that would give the Palestinians the symbolic trappings of statehood — including their own postage stamps and international telephone codes.

But the measures do not go so far as to imply Israeli recognition of Palestinian sovereignty.

The Israeli Cabinet and officials at PLO headquarters in Tunis gave their approval Sunday for their respective leaders to sign the agreement, which will usher in a new era of Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and West Bank town of Jericho.

The agreement, scheduled to be signed in Cairo on Wednesday by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, clears the way for the implementation of the broad principles of Palestinian autonomy that were signed last fall in Washington.

Some 2,500 guests were invited to the Cairo ceremony, which was to be hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and attended by U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who is touring the Middle East on a fresh round of shuttle diplomacy.

The final, unresolved points in the agreement were to be hammered out at an 11th-hour “summit meeting” between Rabin and Arafat on Tuesday or Wednesday in Cairo.

Both sides have agreed that these final points — which include the precise size of the autonomous Jericho district and the deployment of a Palestinian police on the Allenby Bridge between the West Bank and Jordan — would not be allowed to hold up the signing.

TRADE-OFFS LED TO AGREEMENT

Agreement on the final document was reached at the talks in Cairo following a tradeoff of significant concessions between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Arafat.

With Rabin’s prior approval, Peres agreed to let the Gaza-Jericho self-governing authority issue its own postage stamps, have its own internationally recognized telephone dialing code and issue travel documents that were described as both a laissez-passer and a passport.

The PLO gave in to Israel’s insistence that Israeli nationals come solely under Israeli legal jurisdiction for any crime they might commit inside the territory of self-governing Palestinian districts.

While the full text of the political and security agreements was not to be published until after Wednesday’s signing ceremony, it is believed to contain the following main elements:

* The Israeli army withdrawal from Gaza and Jericho will be completed within 10 days of the agreement’s signing.

* The temporary international presence to be stationed in Gaza and Jericho will hail from six of the countries that are contributing materially to the Palestinian self-government, but not from the United States. There was no agreement yet on their exact number.

* Residents of Gaza and Jericho will be issued a travel document, labeled “Laissez-Passer” with the word “Passport” printed below. It will be valid for three years.

* Arafat, who will be free to visit or take up residence in the self-governing districts, will continue to call himself “chairman of the PLO” — or, if elected chairman of the Palestinian self-government, then that title — but not “president of Palestine.”

* The Palestinian postage stamp will bear the legend “Palestinian Authority.”

ANOTHER PROMISE TO CHANGE PALESTINE COVENANT

* The next session of the Palestine National Council, the PLO’s so-called “parliament in exile,” will take up the question of abrogating the sections of the Palestine National Covenant calling for Israel’s dismemberment. This was a commitment undertaken by the PLO in the agreement on mutual recognition that accompanied the declaration of principles signed last September in Washington.

* Palestinians will be guaranteed unfettered freedom of movement between Gaza and Jericho, under detailed arrangements that have been hammered out.

* Another issue reportedly resolved in principle, but not yet published, even informally, is that of air-space rights and arrangements, over both Gaza and Jericho, and other parts of the West Bank that may revert to Palestinian self-rule in the next phase of the peace process.

* The “Cairo Agreement” reached earlier this year, mainly regarding arrangements at the Allenby Bridge crossing between Jordan and the West Bank, has been reconfirmed and applied in virtually all its details to the Rafah checkpoint between Egypt and Gaza.

* Israel will release 5,000 PLO prisoners upon the signing of the agreement or immediately afterward. Israel also has agreed to release thousands of prisoners of the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement — but not those guilty of actual attacks on Israelis — as long as they provide a written pledge to refrain from future violence, to support the peace process and to accept the PLO’s authority.

According to Israeli observers, none of the Hamas prisoners is likely to accept these terms; and so they will remain behind bars for the present.

The PLO for its part, however, will gain political points in the territories for having negotiated terms for the release of Hamas members, thereby demonstrating its concern for all Palestinian prisoners, not just those from its own adherents.

In Paris, meanwhile, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators signed an agreement last Friday establishing the terms of economic relations between the two parties.

The 60-page agreement, signed after eight rounds of negotiations in the French capital, calls for open borders between Israel and the areas falling under Palestinian authority, and allows for the free movement of labor, services, most agricultural products and other goods between the two sides.

The agreement stipulates that Israel and the Palestinian authority will have similar policies regarding imports and customs.

The Palestinians will be able to import goods from Arab and Islamic countries in limited quantities.

Agricultural produce from Gaza and Jericho will enter Israel freely, except for five goods on which import quotas have been imposed for five years: tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, eggs and poultry.

The two customs authorities will jointly operate the border crossing in Jericho and Gaza.

The Palestinians will establish a monetary authority regulating and supervising all banks operating within its area of authority.

The two sides agreed to continue to discuss alternatives to a Palestinian currency. Until then, the Israeli shekel will continue to constitute legal tender in Gaza and Jericho, “side by side with other currencies,” according to the agreement.

ISRAEL TO TRANSFER SOME TAX REVENUES

The Palestinian Tax Administration will conduct its own direct tax policy. Israel agreed to transfer to the Palestinians 75 percent of income-tax revenues collected from Palestinians employed in Israel.

It was also agreed that the Palestinians will establish a value-added tax system similar to that currently employed in Israel.

The agreement calls for the Palestinians to establish their own social security system.

It also calls for the Palestinians to set up their own tourist administration and allows tourists to move freely between Israel and the autonomous areas.

This Thursday, the first contingents of Palestinian police were due to take up their posts in Jericho and Gaza: 500 going to Jericho and 1,500 to Gaza, complete with arms, jeeps and light-armored personnel carriers.

Also due to arrive in Jericho were administrative personnel from the PLO’s Tunis headquarters. Contingents from the organization’s security services were scheduled to arrive soon in Gaza and Jericho.

Yet even as these final arrangements were being made, talks were still proceeding in Cairo on some outstanding issues, including control of the territorial waters off Gaza and the granting of pardons by the PLO to those who have collaborated with the Israeli authorities.

Changes in travel arrangements in the Jericho area were to go into effect Wednesday.

The Israel Defense Force commander for the central sector told Israeli settlers in the Jordan Rift north of Jericho on Sunday that they would no longer be allowed to drive through Jericho, and that if they wanted to travel to Jerusalem, they would have to use an alternative road network.

In the township of Kiryat Malachi, north of Gaza, anti-government feelings were running high, with residents protesting what they believed to be the government’s intention to make the highway that runs past their township available for Palestinian passage.

(Contributing to this report was JTA correspondent Michel Di Paz in Paris.)