Israeli leaders at odds over the Mubarak plan

Press, 27 January 1988, Page 8

Israeli leaders at odds over the Mubarak plan

NZPA-Reuter

Jerusalem

Israel’s Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir, yesterday vehemently rejected peace initiatives calling for an international conference on the Middle East while the Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, repeated his support for such a conference.

Mr Shamir dismissed world condemnation of Israeli policy in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Both leaders were speaking in separate interviews on Israel Radio and television. Mr Peres said he saw merit in a regional peace plan proposed by President Mubarak of Egypt. The idea of a conference has recently been raised by the Soviet Foreign Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, the West German Foreign Minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, and the United Nations Secretary-General, Javier Perez De Cuellar. Although the proposal was blocked by Mr Shamir last year, it has been floated again, spurred by violent demonstrations in which at least

39 Palestinians have been killed and 500 wounded in the occupied areas since December 9. “I think it is completely legitimate to say an international conference is bad for Israel,” said Mr Shamir. “... we must not fall into that trap. It is clear to many, not just to me, that an international conference is the opposite of direct negotiations.” “Tell me, what are these stories of Mr Shamir?” asked Mr Peres. “There was a period he was Prime Minister without me. Why didn’t he conduct direct negotiations then? Who stopped him?” he said, referring to the Shamir premiership in 1983-1984. Mr Peres voiced approval of President Mubarak’s ideas. “Basically, the call of the President

of Egypt to calm down the situation and to negotiate fits very much what I believe is needed.” As journalists and Leftist members of Parliament collected evidence that Israeli soldiers had severely beaten Palestinians under a declared policy to quell riots with “might, power and beatings,” Israeli politicians debated the issue. “We don’t have a policy of beatings and I think we are in a constant search for means that will not kill and will not do physical damage but will reach our goal to restore normal life,” said Mr Shamir. Responding to world criticism of Israel’s policies, including some from American Jewry, Shamir said: “Israel mustn’t kill, it mustn’t'expel, it mustn’t

beat, you ask yourself, what is it allowed to do? Just to get killed, to get wounded, to be defeated?”

Mr Peres, on the other hand, was apologetic about the policy. “The policy of the club, the policy of the stick is not a policy we chose. It is a policy we fell into. Perhaps if the peace initiative I started hadn’t been blocked we wouldn’t have reached this situation.”

A Leftist parliamentarian, Yossi Sarid, investigated beatings in the Gaza Strip and submitted a report to the Cabinet yesterday.

“Some demonstrators were beaten after being apprehended and others were taken from their homes and did not take part in demonstrations at all,” he said.