The Palestinian Authority was expected to neither accept nor reject the US peace proposal but to ask for clarifications, details and maps. "As they are now," an authoritative source told The Irish Times, "the proposals, as we say in Arabic, have no sleeves."
Speaking after prayers in a Gaza mosque, on the occasion of the four-day festival of Id al-Fitr which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, was cautiously optimistic.
"This Id is a decisive Id. God willing, it will represent a strong start `towards self-determination' so that a Palestinian boy or girl will raise the flag of Palestine over the walls, minarets and churches of Jerusalem."
The decisions Mr Arafat must now take could be the most important of his long career and he must take them without the backing of his people. A recent survey suggests that 52 per cent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem oppose any negotiations at this time with Israel, while 39 per cent are in favour.
On the issue considered to be the most important and sensitive by Palestinians, the "right of return" of the refugees, 79 per cent oppose ceding this right in exchange for Israeli concessions in Jerusalem.
Fifty-seven per cent oppose the proposal for the division of the al-Aqsa mosque compound/Temple Mount and of Arab East Jerusalem.
Finally, the poll suggests that Mr Arafat's Fatah movement is supported by only 39 per cent of the populace, a dramatic diminution of its 1996 rating of 88 per cent. Support for the rejectionist Hamas movement has risen from eight to 20.5 per cent.
Moreover, Mr Arafat, a leader who generally rules by consensus, does not even have the approval of leading personalities he appointed to influential positions. Fatah's West Bank chief, Mr Marwan Barghouti, a leader of the intifada, and Mr Ahmad Qurei, author of the 1993 Oslo accord and now speaker of the Legislative Council, oppose the negotiations.
The main Muslim authority in Jerusalem, Mufti Ikrima Sabri, said Palestinians would "not recognise Israeli sovereignty" over any parts of East Jerusalem while Christian churches reject Israeli control over anything other than Jewish holy sites and the Jewish Quarter.
Organisations representing the 1.4 million refugees living in the West Bank and Gaza as well as those speaking for 3.7 million in the diaspora insist that Israel must recognise the refugees' "right to return" before arrangements for their permanent settlement in the Palestinian state and Arab host countries can be made.
