Opinion Editorials, November 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
The need for negotiating skills
Musa Keilani
Jordan Times, Sunday, November 23, 2003
THE HOPE expressed by Ahmed Qureia that peace could be reached in Palestine in six months is the first optimistic note heard since the collapse of the peace negotiations in 1999. Obviously, the Palestinian prime minister is hoping that he would be able to work out an agreement under which many groups, such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fateh's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, would suspend armed resistance in order to set the ground for the resumption of peace negotiations with his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon. He seems to have been encouraged by a round of talks he held with Hamas and Islamic Jihad under Egyptian mediation on Wednesday.
Optimism is further fuelled by reports that Sharon is willing to relax the Israeli stranglehold on the occupied territories and the severe restrictions his army has imposed on the movements of Palestinians living under occupation. Indeed, it has been some six weeks since the last Palestinian suicide attacks and there is ground to hope that the lull in armed resistance will hold if Sharon does not resume his brutal military “crackdown” on the Palestinians. However, the most important factor in any success of moves towards peace is Sharon's realisation that an overwhelming majority of Palestinians wants peace and is ready to do what it takes to maintain a state of peace, security and stability. At the same time, the willingness is contingent on Israel's readiness to respect the Palestinians' territorial and political rights as the basis for a peace agreement.
The Israeli control of the West Bank and Gaza is a reality and we have to absorb that reality into any move for peace. Arabs and Muslims would definitely want to return to the pre-1967 status in Palestine, but the facts on the ground dictate otherwise. Compromises have to be made on both sides, but the Palestinians should not be asked to give up their rights to Arab East Jerusalem and accept a truncated territory as their homeland. The Geneva accord, worked out by a group of Palestinian and Israeli activists, should not be seen separate from the roadmap for peace offered by the Quartet. The initiative addresses the basic concerns of both sides over Jerusalem and is generally acceptable to most Palestinians. However, the Israeli “security wall” has sprung up as yet another formidable hurdle to peace. Expert surveys have revealed that less than only 11 per cent of the wall follows the 1967 lines held by Israel, and major chunks of West Bank land fall inside the fence, which also cuts off Palestinians from their farmlands and severely curtails access to Palestinian community concentrations.
Sharon has shrugged off American, European and international criticism of the wall project and has refused to suspend it. Work is continuing on the wall, and it is certain that the project will have been completed by the time Qureia and Sharon reach a point, hopefully, where the key issue would be the size and borders of a Palestinian state. That was underlined by last week's United Nations Security Council resolution which demanded respect for the Quartet's “roadmap” for peace.
The Israeli government dismissed the move, saying it might start talks with the Qureia government but it does not feel itself bound by the resolution. Since Sharon has not given any indication of any intention to halt the wall project, it is clear he is confident that he would be able to impose his conditions on the Palestinians if ever and whenever a decisive point is reached in negotiations. That is predetermining the outcome of negotiations, and this is, indeed, a dampener of all hopes for a just and fair settlement.
We also have to take into consideration how sincere Sharon is in his current proclamations of willingness to make peace with the Palestinians and figure out whether he is genuinely interested in working out a peace accord with the Palestinians or only manoeuvring under American pressure. In the latter case, Sharon might be hoping that he will never be put in a position where he would have to make definite and fair commitments to peace. He might be betting on developments leading to diversions from the path towards peace, for instance a resumption of armed attacks by a maverick group that he could cite for suspending peace moves at any point in time. In the meantime, he does not stand to lose much by relaxing the Israeli army's grip on the occupied territories. Anyway, it is expected that he will only loosen this grip but will never let go.
Let us not overlook the fact that Washington has sent out signs that it might trim its $9 billion in loan guarantees to Israel if the latter does not halt the wall project. Perhaps, the prospect of that money being reduced is the biggest reason behind Sharon's willingness to offer a “humanitarian” easing of Israel's military blockade of Palestinian areas, an army pullback from one or more West Bank cities and dismantling of Jewish settler outposts in the West Bank. A closer look at the offer clearly indicates that these could be cosmetic moves. Given that the wall is already hampering Palestinian movements and daily life, the “humanitarian” easing would only mean that distances between West Bank towns would now be “reduced”, the Israeli army will “redeploy” to perimeters of West Bank towns and a few “mobile” settlements — that have no consequence to settlement activity in case they are removed.
No doubt, what Qureia will be asked to give in return for the “magnanimous” Israeli gestures can be embodied in compromises that touch upon the basics of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and dignity. And that will be where Qureia will have to show his negotiating skills. Let us hope he will be able to live up to his people's hopes and aspirations and will not fall victim to Sharon's skills in the art of deception.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03). |
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