Peres Meets with Bundestag Committee

Premier Shimon Peres of Israel met with the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee today to explain Israel’s position on the Palestinian issue. He said he was still waiting for a reply to his latest initiative to open negotiations with Jordan. Some members of the committee were highly critical of Israel’s refusal to engage in talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Peres had breakfast today with President Richard von Weizsaecker and had meetings later with Defense Minister Manfred Woerner and Economics Minister Martin Bangemann. Israel and West Germany are cooperating to some extent in research for arms production, and Israel sells certain military equipment to Bonn.

But attention here was focussed on the meeting Peres will have this evening with members of the opposition Green Party, which has largely sided with the Arabs and has been accused of harboring anti-Semitic elements.

The meeting was initiated by the Green’s Bundestag faction which sent a letter to the Israel Embassy expressing great interest in a first-hand report from Peres on Israel’s position with respect to the Palestinian issue. The Green Party delegation to meet Peres will be headed by Juergen Reents, the man who led a group of Green Party members on a visit to Israel in December, 1984.

Meanwhile, some Greens in West Berlin are planning to demonstrate against Peres when he visits the divided city tomorrow. But a majority of the party there will refrain for fear of advancing their image as an anti-Jewish group. The unofficial press organ of the Greens, the Berlin daily Taz, suggested today that Israel and West Germany sign a military cooperation treaty. Bonn and Israel promptly denied there was any substance to such speculation.