Shultz Talks to Shamir, Boycotted by 15 Arabs

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir urged Secretary of State George P. Shultz to move slowly on Palestinian self-rule, and 15 prominent Arabs didn’t show up for a meeting tonight to which Shultz had invited them.

Shultz went to a hotel in Arab east Jerusalem, stood in the floodlighted courtyard and read a statement suggesting that the Palestinians are fearful of working with the United States.

“Peacemaking is difficult,” he read. “Peace has its enemies, but peace is a necessary ingredient to a decent life. Even small steps toward peace can be significant in moving beyond distrust and hatred.”

Shultz is here pursuing new American proposals for Middle East peace.

The no-show was not new for him. A group of Palestinians also refused to meet him in Jerusalem during a visit last October.

‘The Time Is Right’

In the statement which he read against a backdrop of Muslim evening prayers in the distance, Shultz still pursued the goal of bringing Palestinians into Middle East peace talks.

“Opportunity knocks loudly on your door,” he read out in the hotel courtyard. “Now is the time to get to work. We have a workable plan, and we are ready to commit our efforts to it. The time is right, together, to make decisions of historic proportions.”

Earlier today, several Palestinians issued statements saying they would not attend the meeting. The Palestine Liberation Organization had told Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where riots began more than 11 weeks ago, not to meet with Shultz in Jerusalem.

Shultz met today with the three principal members of Israel’s coalition government--Shamir, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

He put “no pressure whatsoever on Shamir,” an Israeli official said, on condition of anonymity. The official said Shamir urged Shultz to move slowly on self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

‘A Time of Testing’

During a two-hour meeting, Shamir told Shultz that there should be “a time of testing” of up to three years before negotiations on a final settlement in the occupied territories, the official said. The American plan calls for negotiations on an overall settlement by December.

The attempt by Shamir to keep alive the 1978 Camp David formula for interim Palestinian self-rule puts Shultz in the middle, between Israel and the Arabs. Egypt and Jordan have declared the process out of date.

Peres, Shamir’s partner and rival in the “national unity” coalition, said he found Shultz “open-minded and very attentive, looking for fresh ideas and information.”

Rabin, the defense minister, said Arab demonstrators should have “no illusion that by force they can change the position of Israel.”

A solution is possible only through negotiations involving Palestinians who live on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, along with Jordan and Israel, he said.