Global Policy Forum

By Curtis Wilkie

Against a backdrop of controversy and conciliatory statements by Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the United Nations General Assembly is convening an extraordinary session here today. Because Secretary of State George P. Shultz denied Arafat a visa to address the United Nations at its headquarters in New York, the international body voted overwhelmingly to move its debate on Palestine to Geneva.

Arafat is scheduled to speak this afternoon to begin three days of discussion. The PLO leader has unrestricted time for his speech. His chief adversary, Israel, has been given 30 minutes tomorrow, and the United States has 10 minutes. Arafat will have the opportunity to clarify remarks he made in Stockholm last Wednesday, in which he said the Palestinian movement accepted "two states, a Palestinian state and a Jewish state" in the territory that was once called Palestine, and that was ruled earlier this century by Turkey and Britain. "Is that clear enough?" Arafat asked, after meeting last week with American Jewish leaders.

For US policy-makers, who are allied with Israel in their skepticism about Arafat's comments, it is not enough. Despite reports that the United States is moving toward direct negotiations with the PLO, the State Department indicated again yesterday that the administration demands an unequivocal recognition of Israel's right to exist and a definitive PLO renunciation of terror against Israel.

Arafat's political adviser, Bassam Abu Sharif, said in an interview published yesterday that Arafat, in his address, will recognize Israel within its pre-1967 borders, Reuters reported. Sharif told the largest-selling Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, that Arafat would clarify resolutions on the subject adopted last month in Algiers.

Shultz rejected Arafat's visa request on the grounds that he was an exponent of terrorist operations. The Israeli UN delegation yesterday condemned Arafat's appearance. "As head of the PLO, Arafat bears responsibility for the activity of his partners in terror," the Israeli statement said.

Geneva will serve as the forum for a debate that has perplexed the United Nations since its inception following World War II. The opposing groups did not accept a UN partition of Palestine. The UN Security Council also passed Resolutions 242 and 338 at the end of the Israeli-Arab wars in 1967 and 1973. The resolutions call for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories captured during the 1967 war in exchange for peace agreements with Arab neighbors. The resolutions are the bases for peace proposals.

Arafat, who addressed the United Nations in New York in 1974 with a holster on his hip and an offer of an olive branch or a gun, represents millions of Palestinians who have no official state. In Algiers, the Palestine National Council last month declared a formal state, which would be made up of Arab East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war.

Israel, which is involved in its own political crisis, is unwilling to give up all the occupied land, although Shimon Peres, the head of the Labor Party, is prepared to yield some territory in exchange for peace.

The United Nations will probably deal with several resolutions this week. One resolution the United Nations may consider would call for an international peace conference, which already has the backing of virtually every international figure but Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel. Another may call for recognizing the Palestinian state, moving the PLO from observer status to full UN membership. Even PLO supporters in the European Community say it has little chance of passage.

In international circles, the Geneva sitting is considered a serious diplomatic rebuke to the United States. The debate was moved to Geneva following a vote of 151 to 2 in the General Assembly. Only the United States and Israel opposed the move, and Shultz was internationally criticized around the world for vetoing Arafat's US visit.

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