Five Israelis, including one Knesset member, were on a panel with officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization, among others, at a meeting of the Socialist International’s Council here last Thursday and Friday.
The Middle East was discussed, and nobody walked out.
The Israelis attending were Knesset member Nava Arad of the Labor Party and fellow Laborites Israel Gat and Abraham Hatzamri. Mapam, the United Workers Party of Israel, was represented by Arie Jaffe and Arieh Shapir.
The spokesman for the PLO group was Khaled al-Hassan.
While the PLO representatives and the Israelis did not engage in conversation, Gat told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency later that the Labor Party’s policy is not to leave when PLO delegates are around the same table and the Middle East is debated.
In fact, according to Gat, the PLO delegates spoke in moderate terms. They implied that peace could have been achieved before, and certainly why not now, he said.
Other panel members were journalist Hanna Siniora, editor of the East Jerusalem Arabic daily Al-Fajr, and Fayez Abu Rahme, a Palestinian lawyer from the Gaza Strip.
There also were delegations, for the first time, from Egypt, Tunis, Morocco and Pakistan.
No anti-Israel resolutions were raised.
In fact, Arad was elected vice president of the Women’s Socialist International, representing the Middle East region. The group includes delegates from Lebanon, Egypt, Israel and Tunisia.
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