Hebrew newspapers blared Sunday with reports of an uncovered Palestinian plan for an independent state headed by the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The plan, discovered during a search by security forces of the Arab Studies Institute in East Jerusalem, is said to be based on a blueprint prepared by an American political scientist and lacks the official endorsement by the PLO.
Nonetheless, it was seen here as the first serious attempt by the local Palestinian leadership to take the initiative following Jordan’s stated intentions to sever administrative ties with the West Bank.
Meanwhile, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy, who is in the Middle East trying to keep alive the flagging U.S. peace plan in the wake of Jordan’s announcement, warned Israelis that “the region is losing its stability, extremism is rising, and the region is threatened by ballistic and chemical weapons.”
Arriving here at the tail end of his week long visit to the region, the U.S. envoy met with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir Sunday, where he continued to press the U.S. plan calling for an exchange of territories for peace and mutual recognition by Arabs and Jews.
But Shamir warned Murphy that any hint of American movement toward the PLO will encourage continued violence in the territories.
Among the specific proposals found in the Arab Studies Institute plan is a call for a declaration of independence to take place in Jerusalem; a provisional government half comprised of residents of the territories and half of PLO activists living abroad; and the appointment of PLO head Yasir Arafat as president and his lieutenant, Farouk Kaddoumi, as foreign minister.
The documents were discovered in the office of Faisal al-Husseini, an alleged Fatah activist who headed the Arab Studies Institute. Husseini was put under administrative arrest last week for the third time, and the center was closed.
ARAB REACTION MUTED
Arab reaction to the uncovering of the documents was muted. No official announcement was made by the PLO confirming the reports, and newspapers in largely Arab East Jerusalem were mum on the subject, apparently waiting for reactions by the PLO.
According to Hanna Siniora, editor of the East Jerusalem daily Al-Fajr, the plan should not be regarded as “a declaration of independence,” but a contingency plan that came out in the open prematurely.
Siniora told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Sunday that he did not believe the PLO would move in the direction of statehood before the Palestine National Council, the PLO’s self-described “government in exile,” meets within a month, as planned.
Siniora said a precondition of any move would be an agreement between the various factions of the PLO, and an assurance by “friendly countries,” including those in the European Economic Community, that they will recognize the new state.
“This is only a bargaining position before coming to the negotiations table,” said Siniora.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s office issued a statement Sunday describing the plan as “crazy and dangerous dreams. They will not materialize. Whoever plays around with such ideas in bound to fail.”
The Labor reaction was more moderate, although Labor ministers released a statement saying they would reject any move to establish a PLO state and attempts on the part of Jordan or the Palestinians “to dictate a unilateral solution.”
They warned, however, that if Israel continued to stick to a policy of inaction, she will leave the initiative “for others.”
They also warned against one-sided attempts to annex the territories, proposed last week by members of the ultra-nationalist Tehiya party saying annexation would further aggravate the conflict and threaten the Jewish and democratic nature of the country.
Versions of the plan had been discussed in the territories long before Jordan’s King Hussein announced last week he would cut ties with the West Bank.
The initial form of the plan, prepared by Professor Jerome Segal, an American political scientist, was published in the East Jerusalem newspaper EI Kuds. It has since been circulated widely among influential Palestinians in the West Bank, reportedly to receive their reactions.
According to the plan, the new Palestinian state would be based on the U.N. partition plan of 1947, which includes many parts of Israel within the so-called “green line” established after the Six-Day War in 1967.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
