TEL AVIV –– Addressing thousands of Israelis at a peace rally Saturday in Tel Aviv, a leading Palestinian official urged Israel to renew peace talks with Yasser Arafat.
Thousands of peace activists demonstrate in Tel Aviv, Saturday, February 16, 2002. The demonstrators called on Israel to stop its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Photo by Havakuk Levison/Reuters
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Sari Nusseibeh, the PLO's representative in Jerusalem, spoke Hebrew as he argued that Palestinian leader Arafat – restricted to his West Bank headquarters for two months by Israeli tanks – remained committed to the idea of a Palestinian state living in peace beside Israel.
"Is there anyone to talk to? There is someone to talk to. He is the president of the Palestinian people," Nusseibeh said, referring to Arafat. "Is the question what to talk about? (That) is also clear, and there's no other answer: We talk about two states for two peoples."
Such public appearances by Palestinian officials in Israel are extremely rare these days, and Nusseibeh's decision to appear underscored his emerging role as an important advocate for ending almost 17 months of deadly violence and resuming peace talks.
Even as the rally was beginning, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a Jewish settlement, killing himself and two others and wounding 27 people, six seriously. Earlier Saturday four Palestinians were killed – three in a gun battle with Israeli troops and one in a car explosion Palestinians blamed on Israel.
"We call on (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon and Arafat – enough blood! Enough blood!" Israeli opposition leader Yossi Sarid told his supporters.
The rally drew a larger crowd than recent pro-peace demonstrations – Israeli media estimated 20,000 – possibly making it the largest such gathering since violence erupted in September 2000.
Still, it was far smaller than pro-peace rallies of past years, when many more Israelis viewed Arafat as a peace partner.
The rally, organized by Sarid's Meretz Party and other dovish groups, was held under the slogan "Get Out of the Territories." A growing number of Israelis say their country should pull out of at least part of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, even without a peace agreement.
"Brother, brother, get out of the territories," chanted the demonstrators.
Nusseibeh, a philosophy professor, is a scion of a prominent Palestinian family and was educated at Harvard and Oxford. In 1991 he emerged as a key Palestinian figure at the Madrid conference, but in recent years he stayed out of public life until his appointment to his current job last summer.
© 2002 The Associated Press
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