Palestinians Will Seek Ministate in Gaza, Jericho

Hoping to break the stalemate in negotiations with Israel on self-government, Palestinians plan to propose that Israel withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho and that local residents assume administration of the rest of the West Bank.

Saeb Erekat, deputy leader of the Palestinian delegation to the Arab-Israeli peace talks, said Wednesday that the proposal will require a major compromise from Israel in creating a Palestinian ministate. But this would be matched by Palestinian agreement to put aside most issues blocking progress in the autonomy negotiations.

“Very difficult decisions will be required by both us and the Israelis, but this approach looks like the best and maybe the only viable way out of the current deadlock,” Erekat said in an interview. “It places the priority on satisfying each side’s own needs rather than first solving each side’s problems with the other.”

Dubbed “Gaza-Jericho first,” the proposal will be put to the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization today in Tunis, Tunisia, for formal approval, Erekat said, and then to Israeli negotiators when the peace talks resume in Washington on Tuesday.

The Tunis meeting is regarded by senior members of the Palestinian delegation as one of the most crucial in PLO history because of the implications of the “Gaza-Jericho” proposal if it is accepted. For similar reasons, they see the forthcoming round of Arab-Israeli talks in Washington as a “make-or-break” session in the negotiations.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres concurs. “We are definitely very close,” he said of the prospects of a Palestinian-Israeli agreement. “It is definitely possible (in the next round). It can be achieved then.”

Yossi Beilin, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, said the “Gaza-Jericho” proposal will get careful study. Israel, Beilin noted, had made a “Gaza first” proposal itself, and Peres said a “Gaza-plus-Jericho” formula could “definitely advance peace” although differences remain on the elements and timetable.

“We will listen to them, analyze this request and decide whether to accept it or negotiate about it,” Beilin said, reiterating the hope of Israeli doves for a breakthrough soon in the 22-month-old talks.

Erekat said that the Palestinians’ “Gaza-Jericho” proposal will seek to move the negotiations beyond issues such as the territorial boundaries of the “Palestinian Interim Self-Governing Authority” and the future status of Jerusalem, which have stalled progress.

He said the proposal is also meant to restore much-needed political momentum to the talks. “People will recover their optimism, their hope that these negotiations are leading somewhere,” Erekat said.

Substantial amounts of economic assistance are being sought to ensure the success of “Gaza-Jericho,” according to other Palestinian sources, and initial promises from the United States, the European Community, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries total between $550 million and $590 million.

The essence of the Palestinian proposal would be to give Israel what it has insisted, with strong U.S. backing, should be the first step toward resolution of the Palestinian problem--a five-year interim period of autonomy, which is effectively a probationary period of self-government for the Palestinians under Israeli supervision, before independence is discussed.

But “Gaza-Jericho” would also assure Palestinians, who want an independent state, that the process would continue beyond autonomy. As part of the deal, Israel would withdraw from both Gaza and Jericho, and those bits of Palestinian territory would have virtual independence.

Anticipating Israeli interest in the proposal, PLO information chief Yasser Abed-Rabho told journalists in Amman, Jordan: “There is a possibility of major progress in the coming round of talks. . . . We are at a historic juncture.”

At the same time, the Palestinians are also pressing Israel to open a secret “back channel” of private negotiations, largely so that PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat can address Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin personally and confidentially on fundamental issues, such as security for Israeli settlers, before the questions are brought up in formal negotiations.

“We want to speed up the negotiations, to force the pace and to focus them on the questions that count,” a senior member of the delegation said. “Gaza-Jericho, even if it is not accepted as presented, should do that.”

The Palestinian leadership, however, must still endorse the “Gaza-Jericho” proposal, and Arafat, the originator of the idea, is facing a storm of criticism within the organization. The dissent is partly over the group’s finances, partly its lack of internal democracy and partly the concessions implicit in the “Gaza-Jericho” proposal.

Two radical groups, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, have already declared their opposition to the “Gaza-Jericho” plan.

Still, Erekat appeared confident as he left Jerusalem to consult with Arafat in Amman that the Palestinians are ready for the compromises that “Gaza-Jericho” would mean for them.

“Essentially, we are saying now that we will accept the administration of the occupied territories, and without much argument about what’s ‘administration,’ what are the ‘territories’ and all that, if we see through an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Jericho that we are on the road we want.”

Major elements of the proposal include the withdrawal of Israeli military and civilian personnel from Gaza, which has a population of about 800,000, and Jericho, whose population is 30,000, plus the election of a Palestinian government, which would rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho and administer the rest of the West Bank.