Israel to offer Palestinians a small pullback

By GWEN ACKERMAN, Associated Press Writer

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Jerusalem — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing a proposal to revive peace talks by offering the Palestinians another pullback in the West Bank — but one much smaller than they expect, Israeli media reports said Sunday.

Earlier Sunday, Netanyahu angered the Palestinians by pledging more Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem in response to the killing of a religious student by suspected Palestinian militants.

Israel TV and Israel Radio said that in a meeting Sunday with top ministers, Netanyahu said he would offer the Palestinians autonomy in another 6 to 8 percent of the West Bank in exchange for their agreeing to enter accelerated talks on a final peace deal.

No immediate confirmation was available, but earlier Netanyahu adviser David Bar-Illan confirmed the meeting took place and said that Netanyahu’s main goal was to begin final status talks. He also said that any further pullbacks depended on a tough crackdown by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat against Islamic militants.

The proposals were slightly more generous than what Netanyahu reportedly proposed in a meeting with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright two weeks ago. The Yediot Ahronot daily said Netanyahu proposed then to turn over 3-5 percent of the West Bank — far short of the 20 percent the Palestinians demand.

Yediot and the Maariv daily also said President Clinton is angry with Netanyahu for failing to meet American demands for a “timeout” in construction of Jewish settlements. Netanyahu has repeatedly sought Palestinian agreement to speed up talks toward a final settlement, which the Israel-PLO accords — signed by a more dovish Israeli government — say should be reached by 1999.

But the Palestinians have demurred, apparently fearing the hardline Netanyahu would never agree to their demands for statehood. They have insisted Israel first carry out a promised three-phase expansion of their autonomous area, which presently covers most of Gaza and about a quarter of the West Bank.

How this transcription was made

Date and publication rest on the collector's slide label; no masthead, folio or printed dateline appears on this clipping.

Context added by this archive

The earliest clipping in the batch and the earliest Liberman: in 1997 he is a staff official resigning over ‘strong-arm tactics’ in party matters, a caption line under a photograph, not a politician with a position on Palestinians. The article itself is about the pullback proposal and the Hirschberg killing.

Also printed: Hirschberg ‘attended a seminary run by Ateret Cohanim, a group involved in buying up property for Jews in the Muslim quarter and other Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem.

Almost immediately after Netanyahu’s speech, workers took measurements at an abandoned two-story house in the Muslim quarter that Ateret Cohanim said it purchased in 1992 but has lacked the money to repair until now.’ The Palestinian deaths referenced across the page are not counted or named anywhere.

Cite this clipping

"Israel to offer Palestinians a small pullback," The Day, 24 November 1997, p. A4. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1997-034. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1997-034