PLO Rejects Israel’s Offer of Self-Rule

The Palestine Liberation Organization on Friday rejected an Israeli proposal for limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“We totally reject it . . . because it is an attempt to legitimize the occupation and ease (Israel’s) burdens,” said Yasser Abed-Rabho, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, the movement’s policy-making body, and head of the PLO’s information department.

The offer of limited autonomy for the 1.8 million Palestinians in the occupied lands gives far too little and would cause a deadlock in Middle East peace talks, Abed-Rabho said.

But Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi said in Washington that although Palestinians were displeased with the Israeli draft they were not rejecting it out of hand.

She told the Cable News Network that the PLO statement in Tunis rejecting the draft reflected the Palestinian negotiators’ “extreme displeasure.”

“The fact that there is some regression in terms of the positions that we had arrived at earlier does not mean that it is entirely useless,” Ashrawi said.

“We told the Israeli delegation, and I would repeat it here, that we are taking the draft proposal very seriously. We have not responded to them officially yet,” she said.

The PLO is not an official party to the peace talks because Israel refuses to deal with the group, which its considers a terrorist organization. But Palestinian negotiators routinely consult with PLO chief Yasser Arafat.

Arafat summoned Faisal Husseini, the chief Palestinian negotiator at the peace talks, to Tunis to discuss the next step.

PLO leaders are discussing ideas to propose to Israeli negotiators when the talks resume Monday, PLO sources said.

The Israeli proposal was presented to Palestinian negotiators at the current round of talks in Washington.

Limited autonomy would be an interim step toward a final resolution of the territories’ status. The Palestinians demand eventual statehood.