Rival Palestinian Groups Split on Egypt’s 10-point Proposal

Strong opposition has developed in rival Palestinian factions to the 10-point Egyptian paper aimed at advancing the Israeli peace initiative.

Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat reportedly assented in principle to the Egyptian proposals when he met with President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo this week.

But reports from Tunis indicate the plan has run into stiff opposition within the PLO’s Executive Committee.

It has also been denounced by Hamas, the Islamic fundamentalist resistance movement which is vying with the PLO for leadership of the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Hamas accused some Arab states of “working on American orders to tame the Palestinian people.”

In leaflet No. 47 circulated in the territories, Hamas intifada activists urged the PLO to end its dialogue with the United States because “Washington believes armed struggle leads no-where.”

The leaflet maintained that the United States is a party to the Arab-Israeli struggle and not a mediator, and called for a general strike to protest PLO contacts with the Americans.

The leaflet was headlined, “Massacres Will Not Wipe Us Out.”

The reference apparently was to “Black September” in 1970, when the Jordanian army decimated the PLO’s fighting force, Al Fatah, then encamped in Jordan, and to the massacre of Palestinians by Lebanese Christian Phalangists at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982.

Meanwhile, two Palestinians were wounded in a clash with the Israel Defense Force in Nablus on Thursday, shortly after a curfew on the city was lifted after 12 days.

One youth was shot when he allegedly tried to snatch a soldier’s rifle, and another was hit in a stone-throwing incident. Elementary and high schools remained closed in Nablus.