Al-Ahram Weekly | Region | Balfour renewed

Though a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza was thought to be the beginning, Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon is seeking "written assurance" from the US that it be the end of Palestinian demands, reports Khaled Amayreh from the West Bank

Palestinian political leaders have spoken out strongly in opposition to rumoured "assurances" and "guarantees" the Bush administration reportedly will give Israel in return for the latter's purported plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, have been disseminating reports suggesting the United States is willing to give Israel "written assurances" stating that it will not have to withdraw from the entirety of the West Bank in the context of any final- status settlement with the Palestinians.

The Israeli press quoted high-ranking officials as saying that the US "pledge" would be contained in a letter that US President George Bush would hand Sharon at their White House meeting on Wednesday. Sharon and his government are already interpreting the reported US promise as constituting a formal recognition of Israel's "right" to annex large parts of the West Bank, including the key Jewish settlements of Ariel, Giva'at Ze'ev, Kiryat Arba, Ma'ali Adomim and the so-called Gush Etzion block.

Needless to say, the annexation of these settlements would reduce the West Bank to three or four disconnected and badly truncated Bantustans. In other words, Palestinians would have to kiss good-bye their aspirations for a genuine and viable state in the West Bank.

The Israeli paper Ha'aretz reported Tuesday that an Israeli-American understanding over the "assurances" was being finalised and that "only one or two words" remained to be sorted out. According to the paper, Sharon wants the American "letter of assurances" to contain clear declarations regarding the future permanent status settlement, which can be construed as US support for the annexation of large blocks of settlements as well as the "elimination" of the Palestinian refugees' right to return.

In fact, on the eve of his visit to the US, Sharon visited the settlement of Ma'ali Adomim, which controls the main road between the southern West Bank and the Ramallah region. There, he told settlers that the settlement "will remain part of the state of Israel forever and ever ... It will be included in the envelope fence around Jerusalem in order to avoid terror attacks on the city and its environs."

Palestinian officials, including opposition leaders, have reacted angrily to the reported American assurances and Sharon's latest provocative remarks.

"We will not accept any assurances or guarantees that are incompatible with UN Resolutions 242 and 338," said Palestinian Authority (PA) Premier Ahmed Qurei. "The world ought to understand that neither America nor Europe can decide on behalf of the Palestinian people."

Qurei told reporters following the PA cabinet session on Monday that "we will not be bound by any promises, assurances or talks ... We will be bound by what we decide not what the United States decides." Moreover, former PA negotiator Sa'eb Erekat warned, Sharon was tampering with the security of the entire region. "The international community knows that peace can't coexist with settlements. Israel will have to choose between settlements and peace, and it is clear that Sharon is choosing settlements over peace."

Erekat also warned that Palestinians would under no circumstances agree to trade the withdrawal from Gaza for the consolidation and perpetuation of the Israeli occupation from the West Bank. "With his statements, Sharon is closing the door before any Palestinian-Israeli peace deal. The withdrawal from Gaza cannot be exchanged for maintaining Israeli occupation in Jerusalem or in the West Bank."

Hamas officials have also strongly rejected the "American complicity and connivance with the Zionist regime". A Hamas spokesman described the reported US assurances to Israel as amounting to "a new Balfour Declaration". "The Balfour Declaration gave Palestine to Jews as a national homeland at our expense. Now Bush is telling Sharon he can keep the loots. This is another Balfour Declaration," said Mohamed Nazzal, a Hamas spokesman.

Another Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, predicted that the American assurances, if verified, would spell the end of the peace process as well as that of the Palestinian negotiators' political career. "What else would be left to talk about?" he asked in an interview with the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera satellite TV.

Meanwhile, Hamas has voiced its inclination and willingness to be integrated into the Palestinian national security apparatus "if and when" a genuine Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip is carried out. The movement's Spokesman Ismail Haniyeh, a former close aide to the murdered Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, told reporters this week that the integration of Hamas into PA security bodies would serve the national interests of the Palestinian people.

Earlier, Hamas officials had indicated that the movement would seek to take part in any post-occupation governance in Gaza, especially if fair and free elections were held.

Such statements by Hamas, coupled with a perceived growth in its political moderation, have been welcomed by the main Palestinian factions, including Fatah. Indeed, there are credible reports that both Hamas and Fatah are conducting secret negotiations for the purpose of reaching a concordance on administering Gaza following the Israeli withdrawal.

Publicly, the PA is lauding efforts aimed at cementing national unity among national and Islamic forces. However, it is clear that the PA is somewhat disquieted by the growing concordance and harmony between Palestinian factions, which some PA officials, especially Fatah old benchers, fear will be at their expense.

Indeed, some PA officials, like Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, have always thought that the PA will lose international support in proportion to how close it gets to Hamas. Seeking to overcome this dilemma, Shaath and other PA officials have argued that the incorporation of Hamas into the PA government in Gaza would be conditional on the Islamic resistance group agreeing to disarm and recognise the PA as the "sole and only authority".

But even this is not good enough for the Bush administration, which views Hamas as an irredeemable terrorist group.

Last week, the State Department urged the PA to "ostracise Hamas and strip it of any power of influence". However, some PA officials rejected the American pressure as "an unacceptable interference in Palestinian internal affairs". PA official Ghassan Al- Khatib told Al-Ahram Weekl y "Palestinians are very sensitive to foreign interference in their internal affairs."

"No Palestinian would be willing to accept external dictates in this regard. Palestinians alone have the right to decide who will be their leaders. This is nobody else's business," he added.

Still, it seems safe to assume that the PA is likely to face a real problem reconciling the stark dilemma of appeasing an Islamophobic Bush administration, on the one hand, while showing strength and leadership to Palestinian peoples, among which Hamas enjoys clear if not overwhelming popularity, on the other. After all, appeasing American demands and respecting Palestinian public opinion seem to be inherently irreconcilable tasks.

		15 - 21 April 2004 Issue No. 686 Region	Current issue Previous issue Site map
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