Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat failed to overcome obstacles in peace negotiations at their latest meeting in the Gaza Strip.
Israel rejected Palestinian demands to lift the closure of the territories. Members of the Palestinian team, including Arafat, were reported to be furious over the lack of progress at the talks.
But Israeli sources rejected statements describing negotiations as being at a crisis point or impasse. The two sides agreed to bold high-level meetings soon, possibly next week, to continue discussing disputed issues.
The Rabin-Arafat meeting at the Erez border crossing was a follow-up to last week’s four-way summit in Cairo with leaders from Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority.
The Gaza meeting was held against the background of continuing terror attacks against Israel, including a Jan. 22 bombing near Netanya that killed 21 Israelis, and led Israel to impose a closure on the West Bank and Gaza.
Rabin and Arafat met alone for the first part of the meeting, and were later joined by senior officials from both sides. The Israeli side included Police Minister Moshe Shahal, Environment Minister Yossi Sarid and Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin. Several high ranking military officials also participated, including Maj. Gen. Oren Shahor, the new coordinator for Israel Defense Force activities in the territories.
Among the participating Palestinians were Palestinian Authority members Nabil Sha’ath, Yasser Abed Rabbo and Saeb Erekat.
According to Sarid, Israeli officials had focused during the meeting on demands that the Palestinian Authority act against Islamic terror. The Palestinians has focused on efforts to lift the closure and accelerate negotiations for holding Palestinian elections in the territories.
Sarid said that while Israel is not happy with the idea of continuing the closure, it is necessary because of security considerations.
Rabbo said the main area of disagreement is one security. He was angry about Israel’s refusal to make any concessions on the closure issue, and Israel’s continued freeze on negotiations over Palestinian prisoner releases and the opening of a safe passage route between the Jericho and Gaza self-rule areas.
Meanwhile, Palestinian police in Gaza continued their crackdown on members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a secular group opposed to the Israel-PLO accord. Palestinian police rounded up 10 DFLP activists, in addition to the 100 members detained since Monday’s shooting attack by DFLP members, in which one Israeli was killed and another wounded. Palestinian police also raided the offices of a Hamas newspaper in Gaza, confiscating documents and computer disks. The newspaper’s editor was arrested by police earlier this week.
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