
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 16, 1993                   TAG: 9308160109
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: JERUSALEM                                LENGTH: Short

400 PALESTINIANS ACCEPT ISRAELI TERMS

Nearly 400 Palestinians exiled by Israel to a mountainside in southeast Lebanon eight months ago but largely forgotten since, on Sunday accepted Israeli terms for their repatriation to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Dr. Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, one of the deportees' leaders, said the group, which has lived in tents through the bitterly cold winter and the hot, dry summer, will accept a phased return and no longer insist on coming back together.

Israel was widely condemned last December when it banished, without trial or even formal charges, 415 Palestinians into the snows of the Lebanese mountains, accusing them of supporting violent Islamic groups. Some of the deportees have since been allowed back.

Israeli Economic Planning Minister Shimon Shetreet called the deportees' decision an important victory for Israel. "They made the right decision," Shetreet said.

Although the men at the tent encampment cheered and clapped as their leaders announced the decision, there was also a feeling that they had been abandoned by other Arabs, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, and that their cause had been forgotten as peace negotiations with Israel proceeded.

While a substantial number of the returnees will go back to their homes, others are likely to face charges, according to military sources here.

by CNB