ISRAEL: PM NETANYAHU AND YASSER ARAFAT EXPECTED TO MEET

(14 Oct 1996) English/Nat

Israeli and Palestinian officials say the Israel Prime Minister and Yasser Arafat are expected to meet soon to announce an agreement on Israel's pull-out from the West Bank town of Hebron.

Benjamin Netanyahu Monday was maintaining his tough stand over the issue - one of the main stumbling blocks in negotiations with the Palestinians.

During a vote of no confidence in the Knesset, he refused to back down despite mounting pressure from opposition legislators to set a date for redeploying Israeli troops in Hebron.

The fragile Middle East peace process - and Hebron in particular were on top of the agenda at the Israeli Knesset on Monday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the Foreign and Defence Committee on Monday about the current negotiations with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu stressed that some progress had been made and said the talks had reached a critical stage.

But he refused to back down over naming the day when Israeli troops will be pulled back around Hebron.

SOUNDBITE (English):
"Well, I cannot tell you a final date, I can tell you we are in a sensitive phase of the negotiations. We're trying to address these twin concerns of security and of enabling the Jewish community to live in such a way that it won't be choked by its neighbours, and I think that with good faith and earnest negotiations it is possible for us obviously to complete it. "
SUPER CAPTION: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister

The pullout from Hebron was to take place last March, during the rule of the previous Labour administration.

After a wave of suicide bombings by radical Palestinians in Israel it was frozen by Netanyahu, who won Israel's May elections.

He is demanding changes in the deal which he says are necessary to ensure the security of some 400 Jewish settlers who live amidst 100-thousand Palestinians in Hebron.

But Palestinians insist Hebron must be put under Palestinian rule and call on the Israeli government to adhere to the Oslo agreement.

SOUNDBITE (English):
"I believe that there is hope but we insist as the Palestinian side that the agreement will be implemented as it is. The spirit and the word of what's written there because we did not accept any change in this agreement and we do not accept to reopen the agreement."
SUPER CAPTION: Jamil Tarifi, Palestinian Minister of Civil Affairs

Netanyahu also faces harsh criticism from his political opponents.

Ehud Barak, member of the Labour Party and one of the main contenders for party leadership, accuses the premier of destroying the confidence of Israel's Arab neighbours.

SOUNDBITE: (English):
I'm confident that redeployment in Hebron will come and when you will see the program you'll be hardly able to find a difference between the result of this long process and the original plan made by the security authorities a few months ago."
SUPER CAPTION: Ehud Barak, Member of Labour Party

On Monday, Labour opposition politicians proposed a no-confidence vote against the Netanyahu administration.

But the motion failed to gain the necessary votes - a simple majority among Knesset members.

M-Ps voted 49 to 55 against the no-confidence motion, with two abstentions

The result will have come as no surprise to Netanyahu.

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