JERUSALEM, Jan 24 (AFP-NT) - Cancellation of clauses in the PLO charter calling for Israel's destruction is of capital importance for Palestinians and Jews alike, even though the document retains little more than symbolic importance. Israel has warned it will halt the peace process crowned by last week's historic Palestinian elections unless the clauses are scrapped in coming weeks. But many Palestinians, especially refugees living in exile, fear that such an amendment to the Palestine Liberation Organization charter will mean the death knell for their demand for the right to return to their homes. "This is not a fundamental issue, but rather a symbolic one," said the former justice minister in Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authoirity, Freih Abu Middein. "There are no Palestinians left who are calling for the destruction of Israel," he said. But for Israelis, the 1968 charter remains a symbol of their fears for the very survival of the Jewish state, fears they have nurtured since the first Arab-Israeli wars that gave birth to the nation. "You cannot be both for peace and for war," Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said recently in a warning to Arafat that the PLO charter must be altered within two months of the inaugural session of the Palestinian council elected on Saturday. Even within the Palestinian territories some of the independents elected to the 88-seat self-rule council -- all of whom automatically became PNC members -- warn that Arafat is not guaranteed success on the charter issue. "We have to replace the charter by a real constitution, and for that we have to wait until Palestinians have their state," said Hanan Ashrawi, elected to the council from easts Jerusalem. lba/dm/ew AFP /AA1234/231248 GMT JAN 96

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