Two leftist Israeli Knesset members and a group of Peace Now activists met face-to-face with an aide to Yasir Arafat and other Palestine Liberation Organization officials at Oxford University’s historic Union Debating Society last weekend.
The confrontation, the highest-level public meeting of its kind yet held in Britain, was characterized by vigorous arguments and disagreements over key issues.
But both sides sent a political message to Jerusalem urging the Israeli government to negotiate with the PLO.
Less explicitly, they sought to advance the PLO’s growing aura of legitimacy in the eyes of Israeli and Diaspora Jewish opinion.
The Israeli participants were Dedi Zucker and Haim Oron, Knesset members for the Citizens Rights Movement and Mapam respectively.
They were joined by Professor Yitzhak Gainoor, Dr. Yael Tamir and writer Benny Barabash of Peace Now.
Bassam Abu Sharif, considered one of the architects of the PLO’s decision to recognize Israel and seek a political solution, was flanked by Ahmed Khalidi, Mirwan Kanafani and two officials from the PLO’s London office, Faisal Aweida and Karma Nabulsi.
A number of prominent British Jews were present, but did not speak.
SEPARATE SIDES OF THE ROOM
Those who did speak were bedeviled by poor acoustics in the drafty, uncomfortable hall. But it was the political theater more than the substance of what was said that made the occasion unique.
Because of an Israeli law that threatens prison for Israelis who talk to the PLO, the two sides sat, ate and drank at separate ends of the hall. They were unable even to shake hands.
There were clashes. Oron insisted that the Palestinian uprising, known as the intifada, was part civil disobedience and part terrorism. The PLO speakers said it was a natural reaction to the Israeli administration of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Zucker demanded a categorical assurance that the Palestinians no longer dream of returning to Jaffa and other once Arab cities in Israel. He did not get it.
But PLO speakers stressed the sincerity of their position, which seeks a settlement based on Israel’s right to exist within secure borders.
Both sides agreed that Israel has to talk to the PLO to secure a comprehensive settlement based on a two-state solution.
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