Palestinians Name 14 to Attend Mideast Peace Talks, Plus 7 Advisers

Palestinian leader Faisal Husseini on Tuesday announced the 14-member Palestinian delegation for next week’s Middle East peace talks after a day of debate over last-minute changes.

The Palestinians also named a seven-member advisory committee that includes Palestinians from East Jerusalem and from outside the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel has said it doesn’t want Palestinians from these areas on the formal delegation.

Husseini, who was kept off the formal delegation because he is from East Jerusalem, will head the advisory committee. He was one of the negotiators who represented Palestinians in talks with Secretary of State James A. Baker III that set ground rules for the conference.

The Palestinian delegation will be led by Dr. Haidar Abdul Shafi, a 71-year-old physician from the Gaza Strip who heads the local chapter of the Red Crescent Society, the Muslim equivalent of the Red Cross. Although most of the delegates are not widely known, they represent the leadership that has grown up in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during 24 years of Israeli occupation.

Elias Freij, mayor of Bethlehem on the West Bank, and Mustafa Natche, ousted as mayor of Hebron on the West Bank by the Israelis in 1983, are two of the better-known names. Most of the others are physicians, lawyers and academics.

In Strasbourg, France, where he addressed the European Parliament, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said of the Palestinian advisory group: “We will not speak with them, and they will not ask us questions.”

Regarding the official delegation, he told reporters Tuesday: “If the representatives at the conference will say that they speak on behalf of the PLO, we will not speak with them.”

Israel has insisted that none of the official delegates represent the Palestine Liberation Organization, which it regards as a terrorist group. The issue is thorny because the PLO claims to speak for all Palestinians.