Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is reportedly demanding that Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat provide a written pledge that he is fully committed to the accords he signed with Israel.
The demand was voiced Monday by Rabin spokesman Oded Ben-Ami after a tape recording of a speech Arafat made recently in South Africa was played on Israel Radio last week and caused an uproar throughout Israel.
In that speech, delivered during a visit he made to Johannesburg two weeks ago to attend the inauguration of President Nelson Mandela, Arafat had called for a “jihad” to regain Jerusalem.
Arafat later said he had been misunderstood and that he had used the word to mean a peaceful crusade rather than a holy war, as the Arabic word is generally interpreted in English.
During that speech, Arafat also said that he would abrogate the autonomy agreement he signed with Israel when it suited him, just as the prophet Mohammad had abrogated a treaty made in the year 627 with the Koreish tribe that was then living in Mecca. Senior Arafat advisor Ahmed Tibi stated this week that Arafat had again been misunderstood and that he had no intention of going back on the agreements he had signed with Israel.
But Ben-Ami made it clear on Monday that Rabin wanted an explicit declaration of Arafat’s intentions.
Rabin “is going to ask Arafat for a written reaffirmation of his commitment (to the peace process) in light of the speech in Johannesburg,” Ben-ami said. “We are not discussing any time-table for the next phase (of negotiations with the Palestinians) until we see whether the other side can stand behind its commitment.”
Arafat’s Johannesburg speech, coupled with continued anger at Rabin’s willingness to negotiate with Arafat in the first place, led members of the opposition to introduce a no-confidence motion in the Knesset on Monday.
Also at issue in the no-confidence vote was the anger of fervently Orthodox parties over the government’s decision to evacuate Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and Jericho district on the Sabbath and on the holiday of Shavuot, actions they considered a desecration of those holy days.
Opposition speakers called on the government to prevent Arafat from visiting Jerusalem, as he has said he intends to do.
The government defeated the no-confidence motion by a vote of 50 to 44.
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