A Palestinian voice — is he crying in the wilderness?

SHIMON PERES, the moderate Israeli Labour leader, believes that Israel should grant limited autonomy to the Palestinian people.
People living on the West Bank of Jordan should be given the choice, he says, of remaining with Israel or becoming part of Jordan once again. He believes that they would choose the latter: "11 the choice is between a king and a dictator they will choose a king — at least they have the manners. Arafat does not exist as a partner for us."
I put the Peres solution to Arafat and King Hussein of Jordan. Both say that the Palestinian people must work out their own destiny and that if they want to create a separate state they should have that right.
The King went so far as to say that "Anyone who thinks there can be a Middle East solution without the °L0 must be off their head ' Ile was in favour of a referendum on the West Bank and believes that the Palestinians would opt to come back into Jordan. 1 could find very little evidence to support this view.
The King criticised the Israelis For their annexation of Jerusalem as their capital: "Jerusalem is the cornerstone to a settlement. It is too big to be the capital of Israel alone.
Later 1 talked with Mayor Elias Freij, the Palestinian mayor of Bethlehem.
Mayor Frei] is a Christian — that in itself is rare amongst the 25 Palestinian mayors on the West Bank. He is regarded as the most 'moderate' in his views on the future shape of Middle East politics. I asked him about his views and himself:
Alton: You are called the mayor. How did you come to be elected?
Freij: When the Israelis occupied the West Bank they organised elections for town mayors. Here in Bethlehem there were 6 candidates for the mayorality 29 candidates for the council. There were II places to be filled and 9 of those places were filled by people elected from my list. DA: Were the elections representative and what happened in other towns?
EF: 80 per cent of the town's people voted — I received 70 per cent of the votes cast. I ran as an independent but in most of the towns the candidates who were successful came from the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) list.
DA: 'You're a Christian. What are the proportions of Christians and Muslims in Palestinian politics and here in Bethlehem?
EF: Because of the influx of refugees the balance has changed here. Sixty per cent of the people are now Muslim and 40 per cent Christian. Out of the 25 Mayors on the West Bank only 4 are Christian.
DA: You are obviously also a target for visiting politicians trying to learn about the Middle East. What are the more mundane parts of the job?
EF: We have to raise the local taxes, although this requires the authority of the Israeli Government. We receive no money from Israel and determine our local tax on land values. We use this money to do the normal jobs of local government — collection of refuse, disposal of sewage, electric lighting at night, schools, building permits etc.
DA: The Jordanian Government still pays the salaries of officials in the West Bank. King Hussein has told me that he believes you would choose to return to Jordanian rule if there was a referendum. What is your opinion?
EF: Israel wants to establish an administrative council. No Palestinian will accept that because it leaves Israel in control of our destiny. Jordan says they will give us a referendum to determine our future. In the long term there
could be a federation with Jordan but in a referendum the Palestinians will vote for a Palestinian home-land and will vote for PLO candidates.
DA: What about Israel's security if there is a Palestinian state run by PLO representatives?
EF: The only security for Israel is in being accepted by the Palestinians. The vast majority of Palestinians are moderate — even conservative — we would not be some satellite for Moscow: We are certainly not pro Soviet.
DA: And Jerusalem. What happens to Jerusalem?
LI': I am against repartition of .ferusalem. West Jerusalem should be the capital of Israel and the east the capital of Palestine, 'there should be free access from one to the other.
DA: Bethlehem is the cradle of Christianity. It has a special place in our hearts as a place of peace and brotherhood. Will there be peace again in the Middle East?
EF: There can never be a military solution to our problems. Sadat realised the futility of military conflict. But there are new winds blowing. We have 1,200,000 Arabs who are Muslim and 40,000 who are Christian. Many of them support Iran, not Iraq, because they are pro-Khomeini. TV culture is glorifying Islam in the Arab world. This is a different world. Muslims are attempting to establish a new world super-power. And now we have two old antagonists facing each other — the fanaticism of Jews versus the fanaticism of Muslims. There is great danger for the world from this clash.
With that the Mayor led us off past Bethlehem Souvenir Enterprises, past Bethlehem Hotel Company (always room at the inn?) and on to the Churth which stands on the spot of Christ's birthplace.