Premier Simon Peres told the Knesset Wednesday that Israel should welcome King Hussein’s decision to end his efforts to bring the Palestine Liberation Organization into the peace process. The Jordanian ruler left the door open to negotiations and Israel will leave the door open because it desires peace, Peres said.
He spoke in reply to five agenda motions concerning Israel’s reaction to Hussein’s speech of February 19 in which he made clear he could not develop a joint peace strategy with PLO chief Yasir Arafat because the word of the PLO leadership could not be relied upon. Peres stressed that Hussein’s speech was important because he saddled the PLO with most of the responsibility for the failure.
He noted further that neither Hussein in his speech nor the PLO in its reaction blamed Israel for the collapse of their talks, but, rather, accused each other. The PLO hasn’t changed, Peres said. It refuses to accept United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 but seeks to alter the resolution.
PERES’ RESPONSE ATTACKED
Peres’ upbeat response to Hussein’s speech was attacked from both ends of the political spectrum. Rightwingers called the King’s criticism of the PLO a “smokescreen.” The far left insisted that Palestinian people. According to Ran Cohen of the Civil Rights Movement (CRM), the PLO represents more than 60 percent of the Palestinians.
Peres disputed that figure but said even if it were accurate it would change nothing. “So I’ll speak to the other 40 percent,” he declared.
PLO supporters in the West Bank, meanwhile, have launched a campaign in support of Arafat. Rallies were held this week at the university in Bethlehem and at AI Najah University in Nablus. Advertisements were published in East Jerusalem Arabic newspapers urging Hussein not to break ties with the PLO. Increased tension in the territory may or may not be related to Hussein’s breach with Arafat.
Most of it concentrated around the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank. On Wednesday, the army closed a girls’ school in the camp after a nearby Israel Defense Force position was pelted with rocks from behind the school walls. A curfew was imposed on Deir Al Khatab Wednesday after rocks were thrown at military vehicles. Rocks were thrown at an Israeli vehicle in Halhoul Tuesday. A small child was slightly injured.
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