Shamir Vows to Use ‘Iron Fist’ in Territories

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, speaking before a special parliamentary session, said today that Israel will use “an iron fist” to crush any Palestinian attempt to declare an independent state in the occupied territories and the army will continue to control the land.

Shamir told the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, that the government will maintain its 21 years of control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip and will never negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Left-wing Knesset members called for the special session of Parliament, which is in summer recess, to discuss Jordanian King Hussein’s recent measures to sever ties with the West Bank. They argued that Israel should explore peace prospects with the 1.5 million Palestinians in the territories.

Hussein, whose country gained control of the territory in 1948 and lost it in 1967, said the links between the two were a deterrent to the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

“Jordanians do not have control over the state of Israel. She (Israel) won’t play this game,” Shamir told a partially filled session of the Knesset, which Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres failed to attend.

‘Raised by Mad People’

“Israel will also most diligently prevent the realization of the idea of a Palestinian government or anything like that raised by mad people,” he said. “These will be stopped with an iron fist.”

The proposed declaration, which was made public last week, calls for a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, parts of the Galilee and East Jerusalem. Shamir’s right-wing Likud bloc opposes trading any Israeli-held territory for a peace pact.

Shamir said Jordan’s steps “were aimed first and foremost against the PLO” and would “harm the Arab residents and not the state of Israel, which will continue to maintain legal and security control as always.”

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat has said discussion of a Palestinian government-in-exile will top the agenda of the Palestine National Council, considered the Palestinian parliament-in-exile, when it meets in Baghdad, Iraq, within the month.

Calls for Annexation

Since Hussein’s measures to cut ties with the West Bank, including the elimination of pay to an estimated 21,000 Jordanian employees in the territory, right-wing Israeli officials have called for the government to annex or extend Israeli law to portions of the West Bank.

Shamir has rejected those calls, but he told the Knesset that Israel will maintain control in the territory.