From: UPI
Subject: Palestinian blame Israel for 'killing' peace process
Reply-To: ayman@eecs.umich.edu
Organization: United Press International
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 12:38:29 GMT
X-Note: This article was automatically cross-posted to soc.culture.lebanon

[ Article cross-posted without permission ]
	JERUSALEM (UPI) -- Palestinian leaders blamed Israel Wednesday for 
``killing'' the Middle East peace process by deporting 415 Muslim
militants to Lebanon, but stopped short of officially withdrawing from
the negotiations.
	Faisal Husseini, the top adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team,
said he was astonished by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's unprecedented
crackdown on the fundamentalist Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations,
upheld by Israel's Supreme Court Tuesday.
	``It's not that we're withdrawing from the peace process. It's that
the other side is killing it,'' Husseini said at a press conference in
East Jerusalem.
	He said ``the only way to bring them back to life'' is if Israel
reverses the deportation, which were condemned by the U.N. Security
Council as a breach of international law.
	Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres welcomed the announcement
that James Jonah, U.N. undersecretary for political affairs, would
arrive in Israel Saturday night on a two-day ``goodwill mission.''
	A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Rabin and Peres would give the U.N.
envoy a detailed briefing on the reasons for the deportations and the
dangers they perceive from Islamic fundamentalism in the region.
	At a special Cabinet meeting, members of the left-wing Meretz Party
called on Rabin to open direct talks with the Palestine Liberation
Organization to counter international criticism Israel has received for
the expulsions. Rabin's spokesman said the prime minister rejected the
advice.
	``Israel has no intention of entering into negotiations with the PLO,
'' said spokesman Gad Ben-Ari. ``The prime minister emphasized in the
meeting that whoever expects a change in Israeli policy toward the
format of the (peace talks) is betting his money in the wrong place.''
	Israel's Supreme Court rejected appeals to the deportation Tuesday
night and expressed skepticism about claims that the men were in mortal
danger because of shelling from Israeli-backed Lebanese militiamen and
the frigid cold.
	``Under these circumstances and in light of the facts that were
brought before us, we saw no room for us to get involved,'' Chief
Justice Meir Shamgar said, delivering the court's ruling after three
days of testimony and deliberations.
	While the judges split 5-2 last Thursday in a decision that allowed
the deportation to proceed, their rejection of the three appeals brought
by relatives of the deportees and Israeli civil rights groups was
unanimous.
	Israel issued the deportation order a week ago following the
kidnapping and execution of a border policeman. Five other Israeli
soldiers were also killed by members of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad
since Dec. 8. Rabin defended the action as part of a ``war on terror''
and has continued to defy almost total world censure.
	Six days after Israel's unprecedented crackdown, members of the Hamas
and Islamic Jihad organizations were still wandering in southern
Lebanon, chased from a tent camp set up by international relief
organizations. The government of Lebanon has refused to accept the
deportees and its army continued to prod the men toward the security
zone.

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