Palestine Liberation Organization representative Issam Sartawi today called on the PLO leadership to approve the continuation of talks with members of what he termed the “Israel peace camp.” Sartawi, generally based in Vienna, held secret talks with Sheli leaders Meir Payil and Arye Eliav in autumn 1976 in Paris.
He told Le Monde that he held these meetings a the request of the PLO leadership and interrupted them after he was disowned by his organization. He called on the PLO to renew these contacts which, he said, can spell the future of the Middle East, Sartawi was last year awarded the Austrian “Kreisky Peace Prize.”