PLO Old Guard Returns to Gaza for Charter Vote

GAZA CITY â€”  At first glance, the gray-haired men swarming seaside Gaza in blazers and windbreakers and exchanging brotherly kisses look like Arab businessmen arriving at a trade show. They suck in their paunches, sit down to cigarettes and strong coffee and say how very good it is to meet again.

But these are no average conventioneers.

Rather, they are old-time guerrillas, the authors of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, the 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking and numerous other terrorist attacks during more than two decades of war against Israel. And they have come to Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian-ruled territory to vote on whether to formally recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres has demanded that the Palestine Liberation Organization eliminate all calls for the destruction of the Jewish state from its charter before entering final peace negotiations scheduled to begin May 4, and Arafat has promised to deliver.

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Despite mounting Palestinian anger over the two-month Israeli closure of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and over Israel’s military offensive in southern Lebanon, Arafat is expected to get the votes he needs to change the PLO’s constitution.

On Monday night, Arafat opened the first meeting of the PLO’s long-standing parliament in exile--the Palestine National Council--with an appeal to the members to recognize that peace is a give-and-take process.

“I call upon your council to amend all the articles in the national charter which contradict ‘the peace of the brave’ that we signed,� Arafat said. “I speak to you honestly when I say we cannot only take and not give. We respect our word and our commitment, and we must act accordingly.�

Many of the graying PLO members had just set foot in the former Palestine for the first time in decades, or even since childhood. Some, like Abul Abbas, the mastermind of the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise liner, were teary-eyed and said they would support Arafat’s appeal.

“Arafat is my close friend. If he needs my help in getting the votes he needs for serving the Palestinian people, I will help him,� Abbas told reporters.

Abbas, 49, was emerging from hiding for the first time since the hijacking, in which American passenger Leon Klinghoffer was killed. Abbas apologized for the attack.

“My mentality has changed from military to political. The Achille Lauro was a mistake,� Abbas said. He added, however, “The struggle of the Palestinian people should continue in the present and carry on into the future.�

Abbas broke into tears as he spoke of his native Haifa, which his family fled in 1948 when Israel was established and Abbas was 2.

“This is the first time for me in years I have come to Palestine. . . . It is my right to return to my homeland and live here,� he said.

Others were not quite so moved. Taysir Quba, deputy chief of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who was returning after a 28-year exile, said his happiness will be complete only when all Palestinian refugees can return to a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

“I am completely against changing the covenant. I will not even attend the meeting where this is discussed,� said Quba, 57. “Israel has annexed Jerusalem. Let them cancel this, and then we’ll discuss a new constitution.�

Quba’s organization rejects Arafat’s 1993 peace agreement with Israel and did not participate in the Palestinian elections for a president and legislative council in January. The PFLP’s leader, George Habash, did not return for the charter vote. One of the group’s more notorious hijackers, Leila Khaled, did return to the West Bank but did not attend the opening session of the council.

The return of these so-called rejectionists and of such high-profile terrorists as Abu Daoud, a key operator in the Munich Olympics attack that left 11 Israeli athletes dead, has infuriated many Israelis.

Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, of the opposition Likud Party, said it was like giving a “kosher� certificate to murderers. Several victims of Palestinian attacks over the years said the return of the perpetrators was deeply painful.

Peres has said he is keeping a promise that slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin made to Arafat to let in all members of the national council, regardless of their viewpoints.

Many Palestinians argue that Arafat wants the nay votes in order to legitimize the two-thirds majority of yea votes he needs to alter the PLO’s charter. Other Palestinians argue that the only way to change the minds of some of these opponents of the step-by-step Israeli-Palestinian peace process is to get them into a Palestinian-ruled area and get them working in the emerging political system.

That theory was endorsed by Saleh Tamari, a former guerrilla and member of the newly elected Palestinian Legislative Council who returned to Gaza with Arafat almost two years ago. “The difference between being in and out is the difference between being part of the event and living on the echo of the event,� Tamari said.

The returnees seemed to reinforce this view with their own reactions to “Palestine� after so many years away. Many said the most shocking image on the trip overland from Jordan was of the sweeping red-tiled Jewish settlements in the West Bank. They knew the Jewish settlements were there but had never seen the concrete in the ground.

Palestinians want to get to final negotiations with Israel to resolve the outstanding issues of Jewish settlements, control over Jerusalem and the size and status of Palestinian-ruled territory.

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Tamari said he is confident that Arafat has the votes necessary to change the charter and get on with negotiations.

“The charter is a part of our history and our heritage, even a part of our youth, and parting with it is like parting with something one grew up with. It’s painful. But it doesn’t respond to the requirements of the new era. It contradicts our decision to establish an independent state, which means accepting two states,� he said.