/srae/ Si/n
HANDING OVER CONTROL of Jericho, OC Central Command MaJ. Gen. Ilan BIran (right) shakes hands with Gen. Haj Ismail, commander of the Askar Brigade of the PLO. Palestinian flags fly in background.
Syria 'not ready' to talk peace
By DVORAH GETZLER
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has stated flatly that Syria is still not ready for serious peace talks.
Speaking before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee last week, Rabin said that he would support any further attempts by U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher — who visited the region twice in May — to broker a peace with Syria.
He noted, however, that the United States could do little more to bridge the gap between Jerusalem and Damascus. "We have an interest in Christopher coming to the region every so often, but I believe Washington has exhausted itself," Rabin said.
During the committee session, Rabin strongly denied newspaper reports
which stated that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had insisted he heard Rabin say he was ready to withdraw from every inch of the Golan Heights in exchange for peace with Syria.
"Stuff and nonsense!" said the prime minister. "I never said anything like that to Mubarak. Not to him and not to the Syrians."
Rabin was challenged at the hearing by Likud Knesset member Ze'ev Binyamin Begin to comment on widespread rumors that Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat intends to visit Jerusalem when he travels to the Jericho autonomous district.
Rabin countered that he would not favor such a visit at the moment, but he could not say what he might feel about it in two years' time, when negotiations on the
final status of Jerusalem are I slated to start.
He added that Arafat has so far made no official request to Israel to fix a date for his much talked-of visit to Jericho. PLO officials had previously announced that Arafat would make the visit in mid-June.
Rabin also told the committee that Israeli authorities have placed strict limits on the movements of the Palestinian chief of internal security in Jericho, Jabril Rajub.
He said Rajub's movements had been confined to the autonomous entity in Jericho after Rajub gave what were seen as highly provocative interviews to Arab reporters in Eastern Jerusalem.
In one of these interviews, he was quoted as saying that those opposed to the peace process must continue the armed struggle against it.
		
BCMA elections Page 3		Opera's       | Survivors World Premiere | address 1,2®® I^agc ®           1         Page ®
		
Candlelighting: Friday, June 10, 6:59 p.m.
75$
VOL. LXS. NO. 23
THURSDAY, JUNE 9,1994
30 SIVAN, 5754
By DAVID LANDAU and DVORAH GETZLER
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The
status of Jerusalem, a subject that is not ,1s
words.
Last week. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin declared that Israel would "assist" the Palestinians in setting up their self-governing agencies in Jericho if they are unable to move them there from Jerusalem.
The prime minister made the pledge, first to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee and then at an impromptu news conference, following a statement by Palestinian leader Faisal Husseini accusing Israel- of waging -a campaign to remove all Palestinian self-rule institutions in Jerusalem.
Husseini and Palestinian leaders have accused Israel of seeking to limit their political activities in Jerusalem and of closing Palestinian institutions here. And they are vowing they will resist any attempt to curb their Jerusalem-based activities.
Palestinians will fight any move to change the political status quo in Jerusalem, Husseini said at a news conference at Orient House, the Palestinian headquarters in
Eastern Jerusalem.
He added that Palestinian leaders would establish increasing numbers of institutions here.
Rabin, however, said he distinguished sharply between those institutions in Jerusalem whose task is to deal with the various needs of the Palestinian population in Jerusalem and other institutions that would in effect serve as constituent agencies of the Palestinian governing authority in the -Gaza-St^^ip^nd Jericho.
Rabin said the Palestinians were committed under the self-rule accord to set up this second category of agencies in Jericho. If they did not fulfill their commitment, Rabin said, Israel would assist them in doing so.
Rabin noted that the Israeli authorities were studying the functions and purposes of the various Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem. He said the authorities would use "legal means" to enforce the terms of the agreement.
The Palestine Liberation Organization's Jerusalem headquarters has long been a matter of controversy between the government and opposition in Israel, and indeed between hawks and doves within the governing coalition.
Israeli opponents argue that the steady growth of the institutions located at Orient House and in nearby facilities is deliberately intended by the PLO to lay the groundwork for a future Palestinian seat of self-government — and later for a full-fledged capital.
The Likud particularly faults the government for allowing, in the accord signed last September, Jerusalem-based Palestinians to have the right to vote in the elections for Palestinian self-government, which are scheduled to take place in several months.
The question of where they are to exercise that right was left open, with the Israeli side insisting that it be exercised  outside the
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JWB Staff
Dr. Martin Schechter is know internationally for his work on the transmission and natural history of HIV infection.
He is about to become known for an additional reason.
Dr. Schechter is one of 12 British Columbians appointed to the 1994 Order of British Columbia. The award will be presented in a ceremony at Government House, Victoria on June 16.
'it is a great honor to receive the Order of B.C.," the UBC epidemiology professor told The Bulletin in a telephone interview. "It is wonderful to receive this award from my new province."
Originally from Toronto, Dr. Schechter has lived in B.C. since 1983. He was subject of an indepth Canada Day feature (June 29,1989) "Vancouver doctor reports from front line in war on AIDS"
The physician and medical researcher has served on numerous committees and panels including the B.C. and Canada Advisory Committee on AIDS.
In 1989 he helped organize the Fifth International Conference on AIDS held in Montreal. About 12,000 delegates from around the worid attended.
And in 1990, he was one of only 10 persons worldwide invited by the World Health Organization Global Program on AIDS to sit on its steering
.1 A' /
DR. SCHECI^TER ... honored for medScaS research
committee on Epidemiology, Forecasting and Surveillance.
Dr. Schechtefs research was recognized nationally in 1992 when he received the National Health Scientist Award for AIDS. The award is the highest recognition given by the federal government's National Health Research Development Program for AIDS research. {JWBidin. 16, 1992, "Schechter's prize fights AIDS").
"I was raised by my parents to believe that it is important to give something back," Schechter told JWB. "That's why I chose to do medical research and particularly disease prevention."
The UBC researcher's work in AIDS has focused on the transmittance and process of the disease.
"It's important to understand those aspects of the disease, because they enable you to develop preventive measures, and change the disease process for the better."
Dr. Schechter is national director and one of three researchers who helped set up the Canadian HIV TRIALS Network. This is a national network connecting people involved in HIV research and treatment.
He is also co-chair, with Dr. Michael Reckart, of the 1996 International Conference on AIDS, to be held in Vancouver. Dr. Schechter says he is excited about the
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