Mideast Talks Go On Despite Land Seizures : Diplomacy: Israelis and Palestinians to discuss elections and troop pullouts. U.S. prods Syria.

Despite the political storm stirred up by Israel’s recent confiscation of Palestinian land for Jewish neighborhoods, talks between the two sides on expanding Palestinian self-rule throughout the West Bank resumed Monday in Cairo.

On a day when President Clinton and Secretary of State Warren Christopher in Washington sought to prod along the Syrian-Israeli peace process, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters that the land confiscations here cast a “dark shadow” over negotiations on elections.

But then he and Joel Singer, legal affairs adviser to the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry, settled in for hard-core haggling over the participation of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem in planned elections for the Palestinian self-rule authority.

And Israel announced Monday night that talks will get under way between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Tel Aviv today on transferring more spheres of civilian authority in the West Bank to Palestinians by mid-June.

Israel already has turned over responsibility for health, education, taxation and tourism to the Palestinians in the West Bank.

Political necessity dictated Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat’s decision to go on with his negotiations with Israel despite the confiscations, said Khalil Shikaki, a political scientist at An-Najah University in the West Bank.

“He had no alternative,” Shikaki said of Arafat. “There is no way that he can stop the talks, not with all the progress that has been made. We are close to a deal with the Israelis on redeployment and elections. It is not as good a deal as many Palestinians would like to see, but it is a deal that will allow Arafat to expand his authority to the West Bank.”

Under the 1993 framework peace accord signed between Israel and the PLO, Israel was supposed to have redeployed its troops out of West Bank towns and villages and allowed Palestinian elections to take place 10 months ago.

But after a series of deadly attacks on Israelis by Islamic militants, Israel slowed the negotiations on redeployment and elections to a crawl.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on Monday told reporters that the chances of reaching an agreement on redeployment and elections by the July 1 target date that Foreign Minister Shimon Peres set depends on the Palestinian Authority’s ability to curb terrorist attacks in territory it now controls.

Rabin opened the Israeli Knesset’s summer session with a speech that defended his decision to confiscate 131 acres--half of it owned by Arabs--to build new neighborhoods for Jews in Jerusalem.

“We confiscate the land of both Jews and Arabs according to the needs and the circumstances, out of concern by the planners and builders, the mayors, the public representatives, the contractors for the welfare of all the city’s residents,” Rabin said. “Confiscation is done only for public needs and only when there’s no other choice.”

Rabin did not repeat what left-wing members of his government said he promised them Sunday--that there will be no further confiscations of Palestinian-owned land in Jerusalem to build Jewish homes before Jerusalem’s final status is settled in negotiations with Palestinians.

But Ehud Olmert, Jerusalem’s right-wing mayor, took reporters and members of the Knesset on a tour of the city Monday and scoffed at the government’s promise.

“I believe that, in spite of the government resolution yesterday, that the Israeli government will eventually have to approve of further expropriations of this land,” Olmert said as he stood near a cluster of Palestinian homes.

He said 70 more acres are needed to link Jewish neighborhoods of French Hill and Pisgat Zeev, both built in the area of Jerusalem that Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East War.

“What is going on in Jerusalem is a clear attempt to change the demographic and geographic status of the city; that is something rejected not only by Muslims but also by the rest of the world,” Arafat said in Gaza on Monday, where he attended a groundbreaking for a Palestinian Parliament building.

Arafat and his Cabinet continue to make tough statements on Jerusalem and the confiscations but have focused their efforts on gaining the help of international and Arab organizations to turn back the Israeli decision, Shikaki said.

In Washington, the President and Christopher talked with visiting Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shareh about security arrangements in the Golan Heights, a knotty issue that must be resolved before Israel and Syria can reach a peace agreement.

A senior U.S. official said Israel and Syria are far apart on such matters as a notification system concerning troop movements, demilitarized zones and stationing of a U.S.-led international force between the adversaries. Progress on that subject, he said, would give a huge boost to Israeli-Syrian negotiations.

Shareh’s trip to Washington came a week after Rabin’s visit.

Talking to reporters before lunching with Christopher, Shareh said Syria has not modified its minimum demand for total Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 war. And he brushed aside Israeli demands for demilitarization of the heights if Israel agrees to relinquish the territory.

Curtius reported from Jerusalem and Kempster from Washington.