Israel Renews Offer of Self-Rule for Palestinians

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Monday renewed--in the most forthcoming terms yet--his country’s offer to the Palestinians of virtual self-government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as soon as the basis for overall autonomy for the occupied territories is agreed upon.

As Peres outlined it, the Palestinians would take over the administration of the Gaza Strip almost immediately and assume control of most government operations in the West Bank once the two sides agreed on a declaration of principles.

“We are seriously interested in stopping our intervention in the lives of the Palestinians, and as soon as possible,” Peres said, adding that Israel would also begin pulling back substantial numbers of its troops from the occupied territories, although it would remain responsible for overall security.

Although he declined to provide a timetable, Peres seemed to be speaking of a process that could begin within a few weeks and be fully under way within a month or two of the basic agreement--the first-ever Palestinian government.

With discussions over the declaration dragging on in Washington after 20 months of meetings, Peres was trying with a display of increased Israeli flexibility to entice the Palestinians into an initial but fundamental agreement, which would in turn give the entire Arab-Israeli negotiations new momentum.

But Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin also made clear Monday that Israeli flexibility does not extend to the future of Jerusalem, which Israel unified after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and which has been developed and enlarged to become its largest city, with a carefully maintained population ratio of 72% Jews, 28% Arabs.

“Jerusalem will remain as it is, united, under Israeli sovereignty, and our capital forever,” Rabin told visiting Jewish leaders. “It will not be included in the interim self-government arrangements for the Palestinians. It is part of Israel, and it will remain so.”

Palestinians, however, view East Jerusalem as the future capital of the state that they hope to establish in the occupied territories. The city also is the economic, cultural and social center of the West Bank, they say, and vital to the region’s development.

Alarmed by Israel’s move three months ago to cut off access for West Bank residents to the city, even its Arab portion, the Palestinian negotiators have insisted that any agreement include Arab East Jerusalem in the region that the autonomous Palestinian government would administer.

“There is no Israeli government that can enter into negotiations about the fate of Jerusalem,” Peres said, noting the strong Israeli consensus on the issue.

Peres added that the closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is not likely to be ended before an agreement on Palestinian self-government, a stand that stems from Israel’s security needs but that also increases pressure on the Palestinians to accept Israeli terms in the negotiations.

Yet, for Peres, the overall offer is one that the Palestinians should not refuse, and he appealed to the Palestinian negotiators to be pragmatic, taking what they can get now and enlarging it through the daily give-and-take involved in establishing the proposed “Palestinian Interim Self-Governing Authority.”

“Once we shall have the principles. . . ,” Peres said over and over in a meeting with American correspondents, the move to self-government would go quickly through many practical steps, including economic development, since there would be a basic agreement underpinning everything.

In Gaza, Israel is ready to hand over administration of the territory to a Palestinian authority composed largely but not exclusively of Gaza residents, Peres said; in the West Bank, Israel would start by transferring responsibility for education, health, taxation, tourism and other areas.

In both regions, the new Palestinian authority would assume primary responsibility for policing and internal security, Peres said.

“We don’t have the slightest interest or inclination to continue to police the lives of the Palestinians,” he said. “Why should we?”

Stressing the need for economic development to support political progress, Peres said that Israel is preparing a request for bids for a plant in Gaza that will both provide desalinated water from the Mediterranean Sea and generate power--a project likely to cost $400 million.

But Israeli and Palestinian negotiators said in Washington over the weekend that they feel they are far from agreement on that declaration of basic principles, and both are now awaiting a U.S. compromise proposal before the current round of talks ends Thursday.

The Palestinians have insisted throughout the negotiations that the declaration be far more specific about territory to be included in the self-governing region and the powers that its government would have.

The future of Jerusalem has become tied to both these issues, but Palestinian negotiators have suggested that if Israel leaves the city’s future open to a later round of talks and effectively suspends its sovereignty over East Jerusalem by halting its development programs there, this question could be put aside in the declaration of principles.