'A Palestinian state is unstoppable'

By Dina Ezzat

Foreign Minister Amr Moussa is a most concerned official. Having been involved in the process since it was launched by President Anwar El-Sadat in the late 1970s, Moussa now says that the process is "disintegrating," going as far as calling it "clinically dead." But in the same breath he insists that regardless of what happens in the short run, the time will come to declare the establishment of a Palestinian state. This is a cause, he often repeats, that will not be given up.

During a visit to London last Monday, Moussa spoke to the Association of the Palestinian Community to commemorate 50 years of Palestinian shatat (diaspora). "Let us resolve that, before the end of the 20th century, we will be celebrating the birth of the State of Palestine; a viable and independent state established by the people and on the land of Palestine," Moussa told an applauding audience.

The argument put forward by the foreign minister was that because of "Palestinian resilience" and the fact that Palestinian land is still there, despite all efforts to impose faits accomplis, the Palestinian people, together with their government, as represented in the Palestinian Authority, will have their homeland and declare their state.

"The reality is increasingly becoming universally recognised, even in Israel; more and more people have started to realise that it is unstoppable," Moussa affirmed.

He said that a Palestinian state is the inevitable outcome of the Madrid peace process and the Oslo agreements. This is why the present Israeli government "has shown much hostility towards the principles of the Madrid process and has sought with such determination to unravel the Oslo agreements," he added.