A Conversationwith the Exiled West Bank Mayors A Palestinian Point of View The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, established in 1943, is a publicly supported, nonpartisan, research and educational organization. Its purpose is to assist policy makers, scholars, businessmen, the press, and the public by providing objective analysis of national and international issues. Views expressed in the institute's publications are those of the authors and do not neces­ sarily reflect the views of the staff, advisory panels, officers, or trustees of AEI. Councilof Academic Advisers Paul W. McCracken, Chairman, Edmund Ezra Day University Professor of Busi­ ness Administration, University of Michigan Robert H. Bork, Alexander M. Bickel Professor of Public Law, Yale Law School Kenneth W. Dam, Harold]. and Marion F. Green Professor of Law and Provost, University of Chicago Donald C. Hellmann, Professor of Political Science and International Studies, University of Washington D. 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Printed in the United States of America Introduction JUDITH KIPPER American Enterprise Institute In this discussion, Mayor Fahd I<awasmeh and Mayor Mohammed Milhem address the Palestinian question from their point of view as West Bankers. Kawasmeh and Milhem, who were elected in 1976 in the towns in which they were born, were expelled from the West Bank in May 1980, by Israel's West Bank military governor. They appealed to the supreme court of Israel to return to their homes in Hebron and Halhoul. The court ruled that they be allowed to return, but the Israeli government did not accept the court's ruling. Since their expulsion, the mayors have been living in Amman, Jordan, where they are visited by family members, who still live in the West Bank. Since their expulsion, the mayors have traveled widely, meet­ ing with European leaders and Arab heads of state. They have visited the United States four times, holding discussions with senior U.S. officials. Today, the Middle East is in turmoil. Lebanon has erupted again, the peace process has stalled, and there is serious concern for the security of the Persian Gulf. As the Reagan administration continues the process of fashioning a policy for the Middle East, the intricate interrelationship of the problems in the region calls for a practical analysis of the conditions necessary for both peace and security. This discussion, like others we have had and will continue to have, pro­ vides us with the unique opportunity to hear and to debate many different perspectives on the Middle East, an area central to U.S. foreign policy. Mayor Milhem in his formal remarks will speak for himself and for Mayor I<awasmeh. 1 A Conversation with the Exiled West Bank Mayors MAYOR MOHAMMED MILHEM: I must be very honest in explaining what goes on in the West Bank and in suggesting ways to resolve the conflict. I do not boast that I am a politician; before 1976, I was a school teacher. My colleague, who is an agricultural engineer and a school teacher, became involved after 1976 in the cause of our people and in the politics of the Middle East. When I came to office, I was visited by many journalists-Is­ raelis, Americans, Europeans, Arabs-who asked me to suggest a solution to the Palestinian problem. At first I responded that the Jews and the Arabs lived together and went to the same schools during the British mandate, so they ought still to be able to live together in one state. Later, I understood that the Israelis wanted their own flag, they wanted their own state. I felt that it was my duty, in order to serve the people who elected me, to have the flexibility to understand the requirements, needs, and aspirations of everyone-Jews and Arabs alike. By 1978, I responded to the same question that Arabs and Israelis could live in two neighboring states, Israel and a Palestinian state. The journalist questioning me asked if I had given up the idea of a secular state in Palestine. I told him that one state, in which the rights of the Jews and the Arabs could be preserved, was a solution. Maybe in fifty or sixty years, after we have maintained two neigh­ boring states in peace, one state may propose to the other that we unite into one state. It could be the Israelis who move first, or it could be the Palestinians. That is not, however, a precondition for the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. I never wanted that precondition. My experience during the last four decades in Palestine has been of the British mandate, and then of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and then of the Israeli occupation. During the British mandate there were revolutions. The Palestinians under the 3 British mandate wanted a national identity, they wanted independ­ ence. Before World War II, the Arabs wanted independence, a Pal­ estinian state, and a Palestinian flag. After World War II, the West Bank and the East Bank were united under the rule of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. As a school teacher, I could see that the Pal­ estinians were not satisfied, that they wanted equality, that they wanted a national identity. This led naturally to the development of a nationalist movement and to the emergence of the Palestine Liberation Organization. As long as the Palestinians are treated as refugees, their nationalist movement reemerges. The world continues to neglect one main ele­ ment, the desires and aspirations of the Palestinians. The Palestinians will not go away. They are there. The rest of the world tries to bypass the Palestinians, to create options, such as the proposed Jordanian option, which bypasses the Palestinians. This is wrong. There is a Palestinian option-dealing directly with the Palestinians. Mayor Kawasmeh and I attended the last meeting of the Pal­ estinian National Council (PNC) in Damascus. We did not speak; we listened, we learned, and we saw certain things. Yasser Arafat spoke to 400 or 500 Palestinian delegates. He spoke my thoughts, with no differences. He spoke as if he were an elected official of the occupied territories. He spoke of what the Israelis should get and of what the Palestinians should get. Some people say that the Jordanian option should be a precon­ dition of negotiations; if we want to talk, we must first talk to King Hussein and to the Jordanians, and then the Palestinians will be satisfiedand their aspirations met. I would say this: talk directly to the Palestinians. First talk to those of us who are elected and to the PLO whichrepresents the Palestinians. Then there can be a Jordanian role at the second stage. There can be no Jordanian role as a pre­ condition to talking directly to the Palestinians. If we secure the minimum political requirements, then we can choose what our re­ lations with the Jordanians will be. I can choose no other alternative but to have close relations with Jordan, because my brother, my sister, and my other next of kin live there. Which of the Palestinian leaders can choose to close the bor­ ders between the East Bank and the West Bank? None can. Anybody who tries to do so will lose support and not be reelected. The relations between Jordanians and Palestinians are already there in the element of human interaction.