Twenty three West Bank mayors have agreed to fight a Lebanese proposal to the Arab League that Arab states boycott goods originating in the Israeli-administered West Bank and Gaza Strip. Meeting yesterday for the first time since the Six-Day War, the moderate West Bank leaders decided unanimously to send a telegram to the Arab League demanding that the proposal be dropped from the agenda of next month’s 14-nation Arab League meeting in Cairo. About 80 percent of the production–most of it agricultural–of the Israeli-administered areas is exported to Arab countries. One of the motivations ascribed to the Lebanese proposal is the competition Arab countries feel from West Bank exports. Acceptance of the proposal by the League would reduce West Bank exports by 25 percent, according to a spokesman for the mayors. A three-man delegation of the West Bank chambers of commerce and agricultural committees has already been appointed to dissuade the Arab League from adopting the proposal. Though the meeting yesterday at Beit Sahur, near Bethlehem, was officially called to deal with an economic issue, it may have been the first step of moderate Palestinian Arabs to organize a political structure of their own. Moderate Palestinian Arab leaders are reportedly anxious to exert a peaceful counter-pressure against Israel’s administration and act on behalf of the independent interests of West Bank residents.
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