Arabs Meeting U.S. Envoy Reject Israel Election Plan

Palestinians who met with a U.S. envoy today rejected an Israeli election plan and demanded that the United States urge Israel to withdraw from occupied Arab territories in exchange for peace.

John Kelly, the new assistant secretary of state responsible for the Middle East, consulted with the Palestinians after meeting Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir about Israel’s plan for elections in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“The so-called Israeli peace initiative is an attempt at simultaneously negating Palestinian national rights and identity, circumventing legitimate representation and leadership, and sidestepping the central issues of the conflict,” the Palestinians wrote in a memorandum.

Kelly met the Palestinians as Yasser Arafat’s Fatah, the biggest group in the PLO, opened a congress in Tunisia. Hard-liners were expected to press for escalation of the nearly 20-month-old uprising in the occupied territories.

In the Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, meanwhile, three Israeli soldiers and at least 17 Arabs were wounded when a grenade was thrown at a military patrol and troops opened fire in retaliation.

Although Kelly’s visit coincided with the hostage crisis in Lebanon, the U.S. envoy focused during his second day in the Jewish state on the Israeli peace initiative.

“We had a serious discussion of the peace process and other problems it involves and the other issues between the United States and Israel,” Kelly said as he emerged from a meeting with Shamir.

Shamir proposes letting the 1.7 million Palestinians of the occupied territories elect representatives to negotiate on some form of limited self-rule.

In their memorandum to Kelly, the 13 Palestinians said they viewed the meeting as part of the dialogue between Washington and the Palestine Liberation Organization, a group Israel condemns as terrorist.