Local Islamic Leaders Disparage Summit

Southern California Islamic leaders on Monday denounced the planned Mideast peace summit in Washington as a “cosmetic meeting,” urging Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat to stay away from the session until Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to negotiate the status of Jerusalem and the archeological tunnel there that touched off last week’s deadly violence.

The weekend declaration by the Israeli leader that the controversial tunnel will “always be open” dooms any possibility for compromise, Muzammil Siddiqi, director of the Islamic Society of Orange County, said at a Los Angeles news conference.

Siddiqi and other leaders of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, a group representing more than 40 local Islamic organizations, met in emergency session Thursday night to discuss the latest crisis in the Middle East.

“The opening of the tunnel has reinforced mistrust,” he said. “The peace process was moving in a good direction, but now [the tunnel opening] has reinforced . . . the [Netanyahu] government’s abandonment of the peace process.”

The local Islamic leaders maintained that the Washington summit was designed merely to reduce international pressure on Netanyahu and to provide President Clinton with a quick fix before the November elections.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak made the right decision when he chose to stay away, said Maher Hathout, spokesman for the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Arab leaders “are coming to be used and manipulated,” he said. “There should be no negotiations until Netanyahu says, ‘I’m willing to negotiate.’ ”

Local leaders said that, while fighting over the tunnel threatens the peace process, the disputed site has gained even more significance as a reflection of the tense relations between Netanyahu’s new government and the Palestinians.

“The insistence on keeping [the tunnel] open is a symbol that this current Israeli government has no regard for the people in that area,” Hathout said.

He said that Israel must negotiate on Jerusalem--and not simply impose its will--because of the city’s religious importance to Jews, Christians and Muslims. He said that until the Netanyahu government does this, the violence will continue “not just in Palestine, but all over the world.”