Israel Approves Only 2 Palestinians for Talks

Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Tuesday that only two of the seven names relayed by the United States as possible Palestinian participants in preliminary Arab-American Mideast peace negotiations are acceptable to his government.

Speaking at a closed session of the Israeli Parliament’s Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, Peres ruled out the other five proposed individuals because they are representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization or its “constituent bodies.”

Portions of Peres’ remarks to the committee were relayed to journalists by sources close to the prime minister. There were few other leaks from the session, however--the result, according to Israel television, of a special plea for secrecy made by Peres to the lawmakers.

List Trimmed by Jordan

Peres reportedly told the committee that the PLO originally proposed a list of 22 possible Palestinian participants for a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation that would meet with the United States as an initial step toward direct Arab-Israeli talks. However, 15 of the names were ruled out by Jordan, the sources quoted Peres as saying.

Of the remaining seven, the only two acceptable to Israel are the proposed delegates from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip--Hanna Seniora, editor of the pro-PLO East Jerusalem daily newspaper Al Fajr, and Fayez abu Rahmeh, former head of the Gaza Lawyers’ Union.

The United States has said it relayed the list of seven names to Israel as a courtesy but that it will not give the Israelis veto power over proposed delegates. However, senior Israeli officials said they expect the United States to ask for additional names before agreeing to preliminary talks with any joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation.

Israel refuses to negotiate with the PLO, which it regards as purely a terrorist organization. Israel radio quoted Peres as asking the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee rhetorically how the PLO would like it if Israel named as negotiators people accused of terrorism against Arabs.

Israeli-Soviet Meeting

On another subject, the sources quoted Peres as telling the committee that the meeting in Paris last week of the Israeli and Soviet ambassadors to France revealed no substantive change in the Soviet positions but did contain interesting “nuances.”

He cited Soviet Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov’s reported stress on a settlement with Syria involving the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. In the past, the Soviets have called for the return of all Arab territory captured by Israel in that conflict, including the West Bank, formerly held by Jordan, and the Gaza Strip, previously administered by Egypt.

Also, Peres noted, the Soviet envoy’s reported emphasis on “dropouts” as a reason for clamping down on the emigration of Soviet Jews was unusual. The word refers to Soviet Jews who apply to rejoin family members now in Israel but who, once out of the Soviet Union, divert to other countries.

Peres also reviewed steps Egypt has taken to improve relations with Israel and said that as a result, the government will soon have to take up again the divisive issue of Taba, a small sliver of Sinai Peninsula land at the heart of an Egyptian-Israeli border dispute.

The left-leaning portion of the national unity government, headed by Peres, has so far failed to reach agreement with the rightist faction, headed by Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, on Egypt’s demand that the territorial dispute be submitted to arbitration.

‘Ball in Our Court’

However, a senior source close to the situation said that recent Egyptian actions, including an increase in tourism and trade with Israel, are “an early manifestation of something (the Egyptians) have been telling us--that once we pull out the cork called Taba, everything else will come to fruition.”

This source added, “The ball is in our court.”

Regarding the Jewish Underground--a Jewish terrorist organization that has struck Arab targets--Peres told the parliamentary committee that neither he nor the government will take a stand on whether the members, who were sentenced Monday, should be pardoned.

In another development, meanwhile, the army announced that it will release this morning 100 of the Lebanese still held at an Israeli prison in Atlit, south of Haifa.

The detainees, most of them Shia Muslims, were among prisoners captured by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. The release of the Atlit prisoners was demanded by the hijackers of TWA Flight 847 last month. The hijackers released their American hostages on June 30, although both Washington and Jerusalem insist that they made no deal involving freedom for the Atlit prisoners.

However, the Peres government decided the next day to release 300 of 735 Lebanese detainees still being held and to free the rest within three months, depending on the security situation in southern Lebanon.

Today’s planned release will leave about 335 Lebanese still at Atlit.