ARAFAT TO ACCEPT ISRAEL’S PRE-’67 BORDERS, AIDE SAYS
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat will recognize Israel within its pre-1967 borders in his address to the United Nations in Geneva, Arafat’s political adviser Bassam Abu Sharif said in an interview published today.
Sharif told the largest-selling Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, that Arafat will clarify resolutions passed in Algiers last month by the Palestine National Council at the U.N. General Assembly’s debate on Palestine on Tuesday.
“Yasser Arafat will speak in a clear way. Arafat will explain to the whole world the meaning of the historic decisions taken during the Palestine National Council meeting, mainly the acceptance of U.N. resolutions, the meaning of which is the right of existence of the state of Israel and the state of Palestine side by side,” he said.
Sharif said the Palestine Liberation Organization wants a state in only the West Bank and Gaza Strip, occupied by Israel since 1967, although the Palestine council based its decision on U.N. Resolution 181 of 1947, which called for the creation of Jewish and Arab states in British-mandate Palestine.
Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip, home to 1.7 million Palestinians and the scene of a year-old uprising against Israeli rule, from Jordan and Egypt.
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