The Mapam party’s sixth national convention ended this weekend after adopting a moderate line on the future of the administered territories and suggesting that Israel favor a peace settlement based on two states– Arab and Jewish–in the territory that was formerly Palestine.
Resolutions adopted at the closing session opposed any Israeli military withdrawal from the present cease-fire lines before peace is achieved and favored attempts to negotiate a partial Suez settlement with Egypt. Mapam stated that united Jerusalem must remain the capital of Israel but proposed autonomous control for the Moslem and Christian holy places in the city and said Israel should not oppose that principle even if control rested with a neighboring Arab state.
On the touchy question of the future of the Gaza Strip the convention voted down a proposal by the party’s veteran leadership to re-affirm its 1956 position calling for annexation of the Strip to Israel. While precluding the return of the Strip to Egypt under any circumstances, Mapam approved by a vote of 304-266 a resolution stating that the future of the Gaza Strip was to be decided eventually on the basis of Israel’s security requirements, the will of the local population and the needs for a solution of the refugee problem.
SECURITY NEED STRESSED
The convention also favored a resolution by the veteran leadership supporting Jewish settlement in the Raffah district for security reasons. But it stressed that steps be taken to protect the rights of the Bedouin inhabitants of the area.
Mapam favored a peace settlement that would return all of Sinai to Egypt with the stipulation that the peninsula be demilitarized and that certain territorial adjustments be made to meet Israeli security needs. Similarly, the convention favored the return of the West Bank to Arab jurisdiction after border modifications essential to Israel’s security and with the stipulation that no Arab armies cross the Jordan River westward. The convention also resolved that Israel’s border with Syria must remain on the Golan Heights with a demilitarized zone between the present and final boundaries.
On the question of Israeli settlement in the administered territories, Mapam maintained that such settlements be of a temporary nature except on the Golan Heights and the Raffah district where permanent security settlements may be established.
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