4 Israeli Peace Activists Convicted of Meeting PLO

In the first test of a controversial security law, an Israeli court Thursday found four peace activists guilty of having contact with “terror groups” because they met publicly with representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization two years ago.

The decision by a Magistrate’s Court in the city of Ramle is likely to intensify a national debate provoked by a six-month-old rebellion of Palestinians who live in territories occupied by Israel. According to a recent poll, two-thirds of Israelis favor talks with the PLO in search of peace.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir is not among them, however. He accepted renomination as leader of his right-wing Likud Bloc late Wednesday with a warning to rebellious Arabs.

“Do we still have to prove that we have the power to cut off every hand that is raised against us?” he said. “If we haven’t proven it already, we will have to increase the pressure.”

Shamir said Thursday in the port of Haifa that he thought the uprising was dying, and there were reports of informal arrangements being struck between troop commanders and community leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where more than 200 Palestinians have been killed since December.

Military sources said the commanders were telling the Palestinians that detainees would be released, families reunited and public services restored in areas that proved to be law abiding. Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin has met three times this week with leaders in the territories, stressing that Israel is prepared to address Palestinian concerns once the violence ends.

In Ramle, though, Judge Avraham Baiser dismissed defense assertions that no law was violated by the activists who met PLO members “to further the cause of peace and end the bloodshed in this country.”

“Nothing has changed to make the PLO anything but the umbrella organization for groups that include those actively involved in terror,” the judge ruled.

The four--Reuvin Kaminer, Elizer Feiler, Latif Dori and Yael Lotan--face maximum sentences of three years in prison. They were among 29 Israelis who met with PLO representatives in Romania in 1986 in defiance of a law that forbids unauthorized contact with members of an organization Israel officially regards as a terrorist group.

Scattered minor protests were reported Thursday in the West Bank and Gaza.