Shamir revises self-rule option

Press, 28 January 1988, Page 6

Shamir revises self-rule option

NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem The Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir, criticised at home and abroad for rejecting Middle-East peace initiatives, is revising a Palestinian autonomy plan cited in the 1979 IsraelEgypt Camp David accords, his spokesman says. The spokesman, Avi Pazner, said Mr Shamir was reviewing the plan calling for limited Palestinian self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and making changes to adapt it to present conditions. He would not say what the changes were but said Mr Shamir would take the revised plan with him when he visited Washington in March. Mr Shamir, a hardliner who voted against the Camp David accords in parliament, has recently insisted that the autonomy plan was the only solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict and has refused to attend an international peace conference. “The autonomy, which is part of the Camp David accords, was intended to solve what is known as ‘the Palestinian problem,’ that is, the status and the condition of the Arab residents of the Land of Israel and in particular Judea, Samaria and Gaza,” Mr Shamir said. He was speaking in a television interview and used the biblical names of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, captured by Israel from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinian leaders rejected the autonomy plan from the start and Egypt cut off talks on the subject with Israel in 1982. Mr Shamir has said an internationl peace conference would force Israel to withdraw from the territories he considers to be the historical heartland of Israel, where 1.5 million Palestinians live under military occupation. “We are talking about a

conference that will have to make decisions about our fate and almost certainly those decisions will be very negative, very harmful for us,” he said. The Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, strongly criticised Mr Shamir for rejecting the new peace initiative by President Hosni Mubarak, of Egypt. “Mubarak comes out with a new initiative, why do we have to right away say no? What does he (Shamir) have to offer, deadlock? Nyet? To say Nyet again?” Mr Peres said in a television interview. Four Palestinians due for deportation on charges of inciting antiIsraeli riots have withdrawn their appeals to the Supreme Court, clearing the way for their imminent deportation, their lawyer said. Political leaders have not yet finally decided on deporting them and a fifth Palestinian who dropped his appeal last week. Riots erupted in several places in the occupied areas on Tuesday, seven weeks after the start of a wave of unrest in which Israeli troops killed 39 Palestinians and wounded over 500. Two Palestinians were wounded by gunfire when the Army dispersed demonstrations and one woman was wounded by blows, an Army spokesman said. The army placed curfews on several refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza following clashes between residents and troops, after having lifted widespread curfews throughout the areas which had lasted for as long as two weeks. The commander of Israel’s southern military district, Major General Yitzhak Mordechai, told the television: “I think the area is not yet completely calm ... there are still attempts by various elements to incite ... and try to lead a new wave of incidents.”