P.L.O. urged to offer strategy for territories

Press, 24 August 1988, Page 12

P.L.O. urged to offer strategy for territories

NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem Leaders of the Arab uprising on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip have urged the Palestine Liberation Organisation to offer a comprehensive political strategy for the Israeli-occupied territories. The appeal was issued as Israeli troops shot and wounded at least 18 Palestinians during clashes with demonstrators and imposed a curfew round the West Bank city of Nablus. Fourteen people were injured in the Gaza Strip, four on the West Bank.

The Army confined 120,000 residents round Nablus to their homes after soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian at the Askar camp. In their latest communique since the antiIsrael unrest began eight months ago, the underground leaders of the revolt called on the P.L.O. to offer a clear political strategy on the occupied territories that would win the Palestinians world support. The communique, distributed in Jerusalem, was seen by some Palestinian analysts as a call for moderation and com-

promise with Israel. It called on the Palestine National Council, the Palestinian Parliament-in-exile, which is expected to meet soon, to remove ambiguities in its policy and work to gather support for Palestinian nationalism. “We are certain the coming P.N.C. will make a clear and comprehensive political programme that will bring' international support to our national rights, and we are assured the P.N.C. will take practical steps to support the intifada (uprising),” it said. Western analysts have said the P.L.O. leader,

Yasser Arafat, backed by uprising leaders, seems ready for an historic compromise. They say the P.N.C. could pave the way for the recognition of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian State in the occupied areas. At stake is the future of the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the territories captured from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 Middle East War. The communique criticised Israel’s ban on a network of local “popular committees” and its expulsions of Arabs accused of fomenting unrest.