Arafat Calls for State of Palestine--With Jerusalem as Capital

Yasser Arafat, cheered wildly by supporters, opened a congress of the PLO’s parliament-in-exile today with a defiant speech calling for a Palestinian state “with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Arafat, buoyed by the end of a rift with hard-line Palestinian factions, cried, “We now all stand together, united until the final liberation of Palestine.”

It was the first meeting of the 426-member council in four years. The session was called to map a new strategy to establish a homeland for the 5 million Palestinians.

This morning, six hard-line Palestinian groups announced that they were dissolving the Palestine National Salvation Front, a 2-year-old Syrian-based coalition that opposed Arafat. The announcement followed a walkout by terrorist Abu Nidal’s Fatah Revolutionary Council.

“We will maintain our armed struggle against Israel, not because we seek war, but because we want peace, a just and comprehensive peace on the basis of the Palestinian right to self-determination and to an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital,” Arafat said.

Peace Conference Conditions

He called for an international Middle East peace conference, but only if it includes the Palestine Liberation Organization and permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, including the Soviet Union.

Arafat delivered special thanks to Algerian President Chadli Bendjedid and Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi for their efforts in the Soviet-sponsored drive to unite the PLO.

The PLO chairman has recently taken a more radical stance on the Palestine issue, abandoning the so-called moderate policies he adopted when Israel drove him out of Lebanon in its 1982 invasion.

A statement issued in the name of Abu Nidal said his group was pulling out of the Palestine National Council because the council’s leaders rejected efforts to restrict Arafat’s “unlimited prerogatives.”

Abu Nidal was believed to have come to Algiers for the session, but he made no public appearance.

Difficulties With Fatah

Nayef Hawatmeh, leader of the hard-line Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, suggested the Palestinians would reach agreement more easily without Abu Nidal’s group, which he said “still has political and organizational difficulties with the mainline Fatah movement.”

Fatah is the main component of the PLO and is led by Arafat.

Abu Nidal, 51, advocates a terrorist war against Israel and the West to promote the Palestinian struggle. His followers have been blamed for more than 100 attacks in the last decade, including the massacres at Rome and Vienna airports Dec. 27, 1985.

To heal the split between Fatah and the hard-line movements, Arafat agreed Sunday to formally abrogate his 1985 understanding with Jordan’s King Hussein calling for a joint peace effort involving Israel.

Hussein suspended the accord a year ago, saying the PLO had broken a promise to accept a U.N. resolution tacitly recognizing the existence of Israel.

Reunification hammered out, Page 4.