Momentum for peace builds in Middle East: Hardliners protest as Israeli cabinet backs deal with PLO
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Your support makes all the difference.ISRAELI and Palestinian leaders moved closer yesterday to a historic peace deal after both sides said they were ready to sign a preliminary statement of principles during Middle East negotiations beginning in Washington today.
As the Israeli cabinet last night backed the deal, Yitzak Rabin, the Prime Minister, was reported to be ready to travel to Washington to sign the outline accord, which sets out the terms for Palestinian self-rule including early autonomy for Gaza and Jericho as a first stage towards a final settlement. The agreement could lead to Israeli military withdrawl from some urban centres in the occupied territories within months, and transfer of certain administrative powers to the Palestinians.
Mr Rabin said yesterday that the agreement was a 'great step forward to advance Israel towards peace with all the neighbouring states and especially the Palestinians'.
Amid loud protests from the right-wing Likud opposition, Shimon Peres the Israeli Foreign Minister, told the Knesset yesterday: 'The beginning of the end of the 100-year conflict between us and the Palestinians is coming . . . We want to live with them in peace. They are humans like us.'
In Tunis the Palestine Liberation Organisation said the deal, initiated in large part by the PLO chairman, Yasser Arafat, and agreed in the first high-level direct talks between Israel and the PLO, would be the first breakthrough in 22 months of negotiations.
The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Johan Joergen Holst, said yesterday that Norway had secretly hosted 14 rounds of the talks this year, including meetings in a farmhouse in the Norwegian countryside, to help the two sides to reach their historic peace deal.
The Israeli cabinet was last night considering whether to move towards full recognition of the PLO, as Mr Rabin conceded publicly for the first time that a peace deal must be done with the real PLO leadership in Tunis, and not only with local Palestinian leaders from the occupied territories.
As unprecedented momentum gathered behind the latest peace moves, hardliners on both sides gave a foretaste of the anger and violent opposition any such agreement would bring.
In Jerusalem last night, thousands of protesters, many of them Jewish settlers, gathered outside the Prime Minister's offices as the cabinet was meeting, hurling eggs at police, who answered with water cannon. The crowds later dispersed, vowing to resume the demonstrations today. A concussion grenade was thrown at the house of the Israeli Interior Minister, Aryeh Deri, by Jewish militants.
Ahmed Jibril, militant head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, warned Mr Arafat that he could face assassination if he pushed the agreement through.
As details emerged of the outline agreement, it became clear yesterday that the Palestinian side had made several major concessions. It will, therefore, be hard for Mr Arafat to sell his plan to ordinary Palestinians who are deeply sceptical about Israeli intentions, and fear that the deal will stop at autonomy for Gaza and Jericho.
In particular, the PLO has agreed discussion of Jerusalem's status be deferred until the final settlement talks. 'Jerusalem remains under Israeli sovereignty and its capital,' said Mr Rabin yesterday.
The PLO also appears to have allowed Israel to maintain jurisdiction over Jewish settlements. 'Confrontation lines' - such as bridges and border points - will remain under Israeli control, including the vital Allenby Bridge, linking the West Bank to Jordan.
The outline agreement does not mention whether Palestinian exiles will have any right of return or whether Mr Arafat himself will be able to go back to Jericho or Gaza during the first stage.
The agreement makes no mention of what territories are involved in the self- rule arrangement, suggesting the PLO has conceded that Palestinian jurisdiction, for the time being, is over people not land, and the borders of a future Palestinian state will for now remain vague.
The statement of principles is broadly based on the formula for the Middle East peace talks, agreed at the Madrid conference in 1991, which called for a five-year interim period before talks begin on the final status of the lands. But there are major changes. The idea of giving broad self-rule to Gaza and Jericho first was never envisaged. In those areas, Palestinians are to have what Israel calls 'full autonomy' straight away, including control over internal security.
More limited autonomy will then be negotiated for the rest of the West Bank, although there some powers will be transferred to a Palestinian authority early in the process. These powers will be in the areas of health, welfare, tourism, education and direct taxation.
Confusion in Jericho, page 8
Conor Cruise O'Brien, page 27
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