Democratic Palestine : 29 (ص 25)
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- Democratic Palestine : 29 (ص 25)
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The Algiers Summit
Under the impact of the Palestinian uprising, twenty Arab leaders convened in Algiers on June 7-9th, for
the best attended Arab summit in many years. Although differences between the nationalist and reac-
tionary regimes were certainly not erased, a spirit of Arab solidarity prevailed. The resolutions adopted in
Algiers put a brake on the decline in official Arab policy, and restored a number of positions favorable to
the PLO and the Palestinian cause.
It is not without significance that the
summit was finally convened in
Algiers. Independent Algeria has a long
history of support to the Palestinian
revolution. The Algerian leadership has
always proved itself an honest ally,
considering that Algeria’s own in-
dependence remains incomplete until
the independence of Palestine is
achieved. The Palestinian National
Council has convened a number of
times in Algiers, without any in-
terference or attempt to impose
political tutelage. Most recently, the
PLO restored its unity there in April
1987 - creating one of the prerequisites
for the ignition of the Palestinian
uprising in the occupied territories in
December of the same year.
In fact, the original proposal for an
extraordinary summit devoted ex-
clusively to the Palestinian uprising
came from Algerian President Shadli
Ben Jedid in February. The Algerian
leadership worked to have the summit
convened in early April, to provide
Arab support to the uprising, and to
precede the schedule set by US
Secretary of State Schultz’s plan for a
truncated international conference in
mid-April, to abort the uprising. By
early March, a majority of Arab states
had agreed to attend. Further prepara-
tions were made by the seven-state
committee formed at the Arab foreign
ministers’ meeting in January. This
committee visited all Arab capitals in
the second half of March, to further
support for the uprising. It visited the
capitals of the five permanent members
of the UN Security Council, concerning
the possibility of UN forces moving to
protect the Palestinian people in the
occupied territories from the fascist
Israeli repression, and _ pressuring
‘Israel’ to abide by international con-
ventions on human rights. The seven-
state delegation was warmly received in
Moscow and Peking. There were some
points of agreement with the French
government, but in London and
Washington D.C., the delegation met
rejection of the idea of a fully em-
powered international conference with
PLO participation on an equal footing.
Meanwhile, the Arab reactionary
regimes were busy putting obstacles in
the way of the summit, citing a variety
of reservations and conditions. The
pro-US Arab kings, especially Hussein
of Jordan, Fahd of Saudi Arabia and
Hassan II of Morocco, were wagering
on the end of the uprising. In this, their
position paralleled that of US im-
perialism which wanted to give the
Israelis more time to beat down the
uprising, and simultaneously hinder the
Arab summit from providing support
to the Palestinians. This would clear the
way for implementing the Schultz plan
which had not been rejected by the
reactionary Arab rulers.
Yet the uprising continued; this fact,
combined with the Algerian
leadership’s insistence, finally led to the
convention of the summit. Due to the
delay imposed by the reactionary
regimes’ attempted sabotage, the
Algiers summit was held under the
shadow of Schultz’s fourth Middle East
shuttle, where he reiterated the US
stand against a Palestinian state and a
fully empowered international con-
ference. However, the vitality of the
Palestinian uprising and its impact
proved ‘to be stronger in the ensuing
inter-Arab contest.
TWO OPPOSITE POLES:
SCHULTZ VS. THE UPRISING
Officially, the summit began in the
evening of June 7th, but it actually
started earlier. Many questions
scheduled on the agenda were decided
beforehand. The PLO compiled a paper
which included its stance on all the
proposed subjects, and sought broad
Arab support for this. On the opposite
side, America’s Arabs, first and
foremost the Saudi and Jordanian
monarchs, were waging their war
against the Palestinian cause on the
pretext of containing «extremism.»
These heads-of-state did their best to
avoid explicit rejection of the Schultz
plan in the summit’s final statement.
King Fahd even put this as a condition
for his participation in the summit,
having previously planned to visit
Cairo on June 7th, the date of the
summit’s convention. It took a meeting
with the presidents of Algeria and
Tunis, to convince the monarch to at-
tend the summit in Algiers. It seems
that King Fahd, who considers himself
the guardian of the two holy places
(Mecca and Al Medina), had forgotten
the existence of the third holy place in
Jerusalem under the abominable
Zionist occupation.
Thus, the conflict escalated between
the two opposing poles: that of the
uprising and that of the Schultz plan.
The first round of this conflict was set-
tled when President Ben Jedid opened
the summit. His speech was a clear
support to the Palestinian position,
reiterating commitment to the PLO,
Palestinian statehood and a fully em-
powered international conference with
PLO participation on an equal footing.
President Ben Jadid set the tone for the
summit’s deliberations by asserting in-
ter alia: «The Palestinian people’s
uprising is a decisive historical turning
point...a radical development in the
methods of the resistance which has
been going on for more than half a
century... (the) repercussions on the
political scene make us face a new
Situation requiring an approach
basically different from the one the
region has witnessed in the past... A
common Arab action must be under- >
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