Israel cannot disqualify any candidate elected in the territories even if the candidate identifies with the Palestine Liberation Organization, Deputy Prime Minister Yitzhak Navon said Thursday.
Navon, a prominent Laborite, explained his understanding of the peace initiative on the Arabic news service of Israel Television.
The former president of Israel, who is fluent in Arabic, said he believed the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem should have the right to participate in the proposed elections.
In addition, he said, he would not insist that the Palestinian uprising end before elections could take place.
Navon’s points are the antithesis of the resolutions adopted by the Likud Central Committee two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Yitzhak Moda’i, who is minister of economics and planning, assailed aides to Yitzhak Shamir for spreading rumors that the prime minister might dismiss Ariel Sharon, Shamir’s most outspoken critic in the Cabinet.
According to Moda’i, “comments by so-called associates of the prime minister must be stopped.” He said he would not tolerate references by “officials, or even ministers, to the possible dismissal of ministers.”
In another development, a Likud minister assured the Knesset on Wednesday that the government’s peace initiative remained intact, as well as the guidelines governing the seven-month-old coalition between Likud and the Labor Party.
Ronni Milo, a Shamir loyalist who is minister for environmental protection, said that since the initiative was overwhelmingly approved by the Knesset in May, it could only be changed by the Knesset.
Milo spoke in reply to a series of agenda motions questioning the constraints and preconditions attached to the plan by the Likud Central Committee on July 5. His remarks implied they would have no effect.
Shamir has repeatedly made the same point, although he accepted the new conditions under pressure from hard-line ministers Sharon, Moda’i and David Levy.
Shamir is trying to convince the Labor Party not to break up the unity coalition government over the peace plan.
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