Arabs Finally Will Confer on Palestinian Uprising

More than six months after the Palestinian uprising began in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and at a moment when it seems to be dying down, leaders of the Arab world will finally meet here today to discuss what they can do to support it.

Most of the heads of state of the 21-member Arab League will be attending the summit, which is expected to adopt resolutions supporting the uprising and criticizing the Mideast peace initiative currently being pursued by Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

Palestinian sources said that Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, will present a four-point working paper asking the summit to reject the Shultz plan, reaffirm Arab recognition of the PLO as “the sole legitimate representative” of the Palestinian people and pledge substantially increased financial support for Palestinians in both the occupied territories and in Lebanon.

What is highly unusual about this summit is that virtually every member of the Arab League has felt compelled to attend it even though, as one Arab diplomatic noted, “most would have preferred to stay away.”

The compelling motive drawing leaders to this picturesque hilltop city is guilt. The last time the Arab League met--in Amman, Jordan, seven months ago--its members were preoccupied with the Iran-Iraq War, and the PLO was all but ignored.

Anger and Frustration

The intifada, as the uprising is called in Arabic, broke out a month later, partly as an angry and frustrated response by Palestinians in the occupied territories to what they saw as the Arab world’s indifference to their plight.