21 - 27 December 2000
Issue No.513
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 December 2000 Issue No.513 |
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Palestinian red lines
By Khaled AmayrehPalestinian Authority (PA) official Saeb Ereikat, head of the PA delegation to the Washington talks, made it clear upon his departure for the American capital on Monday that "the success of the talks, indeed of the whole peace process, hinges on Israel's willingness to withdraw to the borders of 4 June 1967."
"I would like to make clear to all, that unless Israel agrees to return to the lines of 4 June 1967, and comes to terms with the refugees' right to return home in accordance with UN resolution 194, there will be no point in conducting any further negotiations."
Some Palestinian officials have charged that the resumption of talks in Washington was actually a ploy on the part of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, possibly in connivance with President Bill Clinton's administration, to rescue Barak's political career and enable him to get re-elected in Israel's upcoming prime-ministerial election scheduled to take place in February.
Last week, PA minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, who is also taking part in the Washington talks, opined that negotiations would be futile. Abed Rabbo pointed out that the United States was pressuring the PA to meet with the Israelis and admitted that the only reason the PA agreed to go to Washington, given the present circumstances, was to ward off accusations that it was being intransigent.
"The Americans are pressuring us to talk with Barak, so we are going to meet with them in Washington, but there is really not much point to it."
According to Palestinian sources, US envoy Dennis Ross has "advised" Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to try to reach a final peace agreement with Israel before Clinton's presidency concludes on 21 January. Arafat reportedly rejected the tacit warning, saying "I'm not in a hurry, I can wait."
Some Palestinian officials viewed Ross's "advice" to the Palestinians as an insult to their intelligence. "No Palestinian would feel sorry about the end of the Clinton administration. It was the most Zionist American administration ever," said PA official Ahmed Abdel-Rahman.
However, according to informed sources, the PA has actually never stopped talking with Barak, either through direct or indirect channels since the Al-Aqsa Intifada started in late September. And, Palestinian pessimism at the resumption of talks stems from the outcome of several of these secret and public encounters between PA and Israeli officials during the last three weeks.
According to PA sources, Israeli officials and emissaries who met with Arafat gave no sign that the Barak government was about to seriously change its declared position on the main issues; namely Jerusalem, the refugees and the settlements. In fact, on some occasions, the Israelis even backtracked on "concessions" they reportedly had been willing to grant to the Palestinians during the Camp David talks hosted by Clinton in July.
As Israeli negotiators talk of "peace" in Washington, the army reveals the real meaning behind their words at the gates near Al-Aqsa mosque in the old city of Jerusalem
(photo: AFP)
For example, Israeli acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami suggested before leaving for Washington that the best way to resolve the issue of Jerusalem was by "maintaining the status quo" in the city.
Predictably, the statement angered the Palestinians. Regarding Ben Ami, Ereikat said, "He can say whatever he wishes to say, but the fact remains that Jerusalem would have to be returned to the Palestinians if peace is to be achieved."
Such statements by Israeli officials, along with the Israeli army's sustained bloody repression of the Palestinian Intifada, seem to have emboldened and even radicalised the Palestinian position.
According to Israeli press sources, Arafat told Ben Ami and Barak's adviser, Gilad Sher, whom he met for three hours near the Erez border crossing last week, "If you can't or don't want to hold talks on the implementation of international resolutions, particularly UN resolution 242, this will be a waste of your time and ours." Resolution 242 calls on Israel to withdraw to its pre-1967 war borders.
If true, Arafat's uncompromising stance should be viewed in the context of some of the new realities in the region which he must find very difficult to ignore.
To begin with, it is clear that there is strong opposition among Palestinians to the resumption of talks with Israel on the grounds that the rules of the game have now changed, requiring that the Palestinians adopt a new negotiating strategy. This, opponents of the resumption of talks say, should be based on two elements: first, the implementation of UN resolution 242; and, second, international arbitration, in the event that there is a deadlock in formulating a concordant understanding and interpretation of that resolution, as is currently the case.
Moreover, the Palestinian leadership realises that the uprising has exposed all the flaws of Oslo, as well as the continuing entrenchment of the Israeli occupation in the West Bank. It has also shown that Israel maintains control over virtually all aspects of life in the occupied territories -- as demonstrated every day and every night since the outbreak of the uprising on 28 September.
Hence, the PA feels that agreeing to go back to Oslo's "theatrics," as Fatah chief in the West Bank Marwan Al-Barghouthi recently described the Oslo process, would be political suicide for Arafat.
Last week, the Islamic Resistance Movement, whose popularity has grown in the last few weeks, warned the PA against "returning to cheap negotiations with Israel."
"The Palestinian people shall not allow anybody or any leadership to betray the blood of our martyrs. This is a note to 'whom it may concern,'" said Salah Shehadeh, the founder of Hamas's military wing in a massive rally held in Gaza on 15 December.
The Islamic Jihad organisation had an even a bolder message: "The Intifada toppled Ehud Barak. Will it also topple others? Anyone who tries to undermine the uprising -- whether Arab or Palestinian -- will pay with his political life."
Arafat is also faced with growing Arab and Islamic opposition to any serious concessions on Jerusalem.
On Sunday, President Hosni Mubarak warned that Arafat "had no right, and is not authorised to take a final decision on Jerusalem because the matter concerns all Muslim and Christian peoples."
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