‘Autonomy’ Disputed at Peace Talks

Two far different concepts of autonomy emerged Wednesday as the first major difference between the Israelis and the Palestinians at the latest round of the Middle East peace conference.

The Palestinians want autonomy under a legislative council; the Israelis propose autonomy under an administrative council. The dispute may sound somewhat legalistic and arcane but, in fact, it goes to the heart of the issue.

Under the new Labor Party government, the Israeli negotiating team, going further than it ever did in the first five rounds of the talks, has proposed the creation of an elected administrative council as part of a system of autonomy for Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied territories.

The Palestinians, while promising to study the plan, have proposed creation of an elected legislative council that would pass laws for an autonomous Palestinian territory and not just administer laws handed down by Israel.

But Elyakim Rubinstein, leader of the Israeli negotiating team here, told a news conference that creating a legislative council would amount to “prejudging the outcome of the final status” of negotiations.

By this, he evidently meant that electing a Palestinian council with the power to pass legislation would amount to a first step toward creating a separate Palestinian state. For that reason, Rubinstein said, Israel is not offering “a legislative council and legislative powers which are tantamount to those of . . . the parliament of a sovereign state.”

Israeli governments consistently have opposed such a Palestinian state, instead advocating either a joint Jordanian-Palestinian government or Israeli annexation of the territories.

Although the Israeli-proposed administrative council would not pass laws for the autonomous territories, Rubinstein said, it would have “powers to deal with bylaws, deal with regulations.” This would allow it to “administer the lives of the Palestinians in the territories in many, many walks of life,” he said.

Even the administrative council, he went on, is “a major step” for the Palestinians. “What we offer is a sea change from what exists now and from whatever the Palestinians had in their history,” he said. And he added that it would “leave options open” for later discussions on a permanent status for the Palestinian people.

The administrative council was not wholly dismissed by Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi. “Now at least we have two sets of proposals on the table,” she said. And she noted that “on principle, they have finally accepted the idea that the Palestinians should have national elections.”

But she said: “We are quite concerned about having a legitimate, elected source of authority, a national authority which is democratically elected and, therefore, capable of carrying out legislative as well as judiciary, as well as executive powers.”

Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, was more fiery in his denunciation of the Israeli proposal. Speaking at the U.N. compound in Geneva, he said that Palestinians want complete self-determination--”not administrative elections as (Israel) has proposed, under the guns and cannons of its tanks.”