
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 7, 1990                   TAG: 9004070203
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ROME                                LENGTH: Medium

PLO CLAIMS ISRAELI CONTACTS

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat said Friday that he had had secret contacts with Israeli leaders to discuss the Middle East peace process and the Palestinian uprising in the occupied lands.

But Friday night in New York, an Israeli official "categorically" denied such contacts.

Arafat made his remarks in an interview with Italy's state-owned RAI television, broadcast hours after the Palestinian leader held his third meeting in eight years with Pope John Paul II.

Asked whether he had had clandestine contact with Israel, Arafat replied, "Yes, there is. There are many contacts between the Palestinian and Israeli leadership. For example, (former Defense Minister Yitzhak) Rabin sent an emissary with a message for me. Even (Prime Minister Yitzhak) Shamir did so."

In New York, Yuval Rotem, spokesman for the Israeli mission, denied Arafat's statement. He suggested the PLO leader was referring to talks Israeli leaders held in summer 1989 with Palestinians, including PLO supporters, to advance an Israeli peace plan.

"Arafat and the PLO is a non-starter to any negotiations," Rotem told The Associated Press. "At this moment, as long as there is no new (Israeli) government, there is no review of Israeli policy toward the PLO."

He said Arafat made the latest claim because "he's looking for legitimacy from the Israelis."

There have been rumors of contact between Israeli and PLO leaders but they had not been previously confirmed. Israel has banned talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization, saying it is a terrorist organization bent on destruction of the Jewish state.

Shamir dismissed Science Minister Ezer Weitzman from Israel's inner Cabinet last December for having contacts with the PLO.

Arafat said the messages he had received from the Israeli leaders regarded "the intefadeh, some aspects of the peace initiative, messages that illustrate their point of view about them."

Intefadeh is the Arab name for the Palestinian revolt that began in December 1987 against Israeli rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

by CNB