As the newly named members of the Palestinian governing authority prepare to arrive in the West Bank town of Jericho, Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat has again sparked controversy by naming Jerusalem as the capital of Arab Palestine.
This bombshell, which came in an interview with Radio Algeria on Wednesday, came hard on the heels of Arafat’s now-infamous remarks in Johannesburg last month, when he called for a jihad to liberate Jerusalem.
Arafat later said he used the Arabic word to refer to a peaceful struggle, although jihad is generally translated as “holy war” in English.
During his Johannesburg speech, and in subsequent remarks, Arafat also implied that he could break the agreement between the PLO and Israel whenever he pleased.
In Wednesday’s interview, Arafat said that U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 specifically recognizes that Jerusalem is an integral and indivisible part of the territories that Israel conquered from the Arab states in June 1967.
“It is on that basis that we went ahead with the Madrid and Oslo talks,” said Arafat, referring to negotiations that preceded the signing of the Palestinian self-rule accord.
In a letter that the PLO leader sent to the heads of the non-aligned states, who met this week in Cairo, Arafat said that remarks about Jerusalem made this week by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin were in contravention of the autonomy agreement signed in Cairo last month.
Earlier this week, Rabin said that Jerusalem would remain the undivided capital of Israel. He added that Israel will take steps to prevent the establishment and operation of any Palestinian autonomous agencies in Jerusalem.
Libya’s official press agency wrote on Wednesday that Rabin was humiliating Arafat over the Jerusalem issue.
According to the declaration of principles signed last fall by Israel and the PLO, Jerusalem was to be the subject of “final-status” negotiations, which are to begin in no later than two years.
OFFICES READIED FOR MEMBERS OF AUTHORITY
Preparations are meanwhile underway for the arrival in Jericho of some of the senior members of the newly formed Palestinian governing authority, which will have overall responsibility for Palestinian affairs in the autonomous regions of Jericho and the Gaza Strip.
Among those expected in Jericho by the end of this week or the start of the next are Nabil Sha’ath and Ahmed Karia, both of whom hold economic portfolios.
Some 18 offices have already been prepared for the members of the authority, which will be led by Arafat.
Also being set up in Jericho is a special office to assist victims of the intifada, the seven-year uprising against Israel’s administration of the West Bank and Gaza.
The arrival in Jericho of the council members will be the first test of their popular standing at a time when there is sharp criticism of many of the nominations.
Critics are charging that veteran Palestinian leaders who stayed in the West Bank and Gaza during the difficult years of the intifada have been overlooked and that plum posts have been given to many whose sole qualification is their closeness to Arafat.
In Gaza this week, a leader of Arafat’s mainstream Fatah movement told the Israeli daily Ha’aretz that he felt sorry for the members of the Palestinian authority.
“They have to fulfil promises without having the means to keep those promises,” said Hisham Abd a-Rajek.
He was referring in particular to the council’s desperate lack of funds. A number of foreign countries had promised aid in the wake of last fall’s signing of the self-rule accord, but the money has so far not materialized.
On Tuesday, Arafat appealed to President Clinton to encourage those who pledged aid to honor those pledges.
Earlier this week, Israel made its final payments to the tens of thousands it had employed in the civil administration of Gaza.
Rabin warned on Sunday that a financial crisis serious enough to disrupt the progress of Palestinian self-rule would occur if the promised foreign aid did not arrive soon.
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.
