4 Israeli Parliament Members Greet Arafat With Hugs, Kisses

Four Israeli Parliament members hugged and kissed Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat on Monday, one of the Israelis said.

“Arafat kissed me and shook my hand and told me, ‘Here we have one of the best fighters for justice and peace,’ ” Knesset (Parliament) member Charlie Biton said.

It is a criminal offense in Israel to have unauthorized contacts with the PLO, but some Israeli leftists are defying the law to dramatize their advocacy of a negotiated settlement of the Palestinian problem.

The five met at a reception given at a hotel by the guerrilla leader for parliamentary delegates to a U.N. conference of non-governmental organizations on the question of Palestine.

Biton described mutual embraces and kisses between Arafat and the four leftist Knesset members: Matti Peled and Mohammed Miari of the Progressive List for Peace and Tewfik Zayyad and Biton himself of the Democratic Front for Peace.

Four Israelis are on trial for meeting PLO officials in Romania last year. About 20 Israelis met PLO leaders in Hungary in June, but none has been charged.

Israeli sources said Knesset members have immunity from prosecution but that a Knesset committee can choose to withdraw that immunity.

Addressing the U.N. conference, Arafat hailed Israeli leftists who have opposed Israeli policies.

“I would like to express our greetings to the Israeli peace forces who have courageously stood up against the fascist decisions and against the invasion of Lebanon and who are standing today on the side of the realization of the national rights of the Palestinian people,” he said.

Arafat also called for international peace talks.

“We formally accept all international initiatives to bring about a just and durable peace in the Middle East, first and foremost of which is the convening of an international conference,” Arafat told the meeting.

Among those initiatives are U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which call for Israeli withdrawal from land occupied in the Six-Day War in 1967 and for the peaceful existence of all states in the region, including Israel. However, Arafat stoped short of formally accepting those resolutions, which are controversial among Palestinians.