WORLD AFFAIRS

An unofficial accord

JOHN CHERIAN

Despite opposition from the Israeli Prime Minister and sections of Palestinian opinion, the unofficial peace agreement signed in Geneva has considerable popular backing.

THE unofficial peace agreement signed between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators in Geneva in the first week of December is viewed with cautious optimism. One Israeli public opinion poll has, by a thin margin, endorsed the peace plan despite Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's outright rejection of it. There have been protests in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip against the "Geneva accord". Many Palestinians are angry with what they perceive as unwarranted concessions to the Israeli state. An Israeli peace activist said that under the given circumstances, the Geneva agreement was "Ahsan min balash", which in Arabic means "better than nothing". She said that the Israeli politicians involved in the negotiations were basically "decent men". However, she admitted that it would be difficult for the peace plan to succeed given the strong linkages that exist between the right-wing Likud government and the "neo-conservatives" who dominate the George W. Bush administration in the United States.

PATRICK GARDIN/AP

Former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo (right) and former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin at the signing ceremony of the Geneva accord on December 1.

Some Arab diplomats pointed out that Israeli politicians, especially those belonging to the Labour Party, loudly espoused the cause of peace when they were in the Opposition. Once in power, they sing a different tune, according to the diplomats. As an illustration, they give the example of Ehud Barak, the former Labour Prime Minister, who rode to power on the peace bandwagon. They also point out that under the "Oslo accord", Palestinian President Yasser Arafat recognised Israeli sovereignty over 78 per cent of Palestinian land in the hope of establishing an independent Palestinian state. Other diplomats feel that the latest unofficial peace initiative is a positive step that has enthused people on both sides of the divide. Israelis, who are in favour of peace, point out that a similar peace plan was worked out by prominent Israelis and Palestinians in the 1980s. Among the prime movers of that was the prominent Palestinian poet and Communist Party leader Emil Habibi and Yoran Kamuk, a well-known Israeli writer. That peace plan eventually led to the Oslo agreement. The peace plan this time has much broader backing but people are sceptical about its prospects. When the Oslo agreement was signed there were fewer problems between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Ariel Sharon immediately gave the proposed peace deal short shrift, even going to the extent of calling the non-official Israeli role in it as "subversive". Isi Levy-Mazloum, belonging to the Likud Party said that the agreement "flouts the will of the Israeli people". Yasser Arafat, however, described the accord as "a brave initiative that opens the door to hope".

Fifty-eight former world leaders, including Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton have signed a statement in support of the peace initiative. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's decision to meet with the two main architects of the "Geneva agreement", during a stopover in Brussels in the first week of December, came in for criticism from the Israeli government. Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Powell was "making a mistake".

The Bush administration is, however, swearing by the "road map for peace" announced with much fanfare in the middle of 2003. Most Israelis and Palestinians are of the opinion that it will be very difficult to revive the plan which currently lies in tatters. President Bush reiterated his administration's pro-Likud position in the second week of December by telling the American media that Palestinians would have to first stop attacks on Israelis before Israel could make any meaningful concessions.

Bush's comments came soon after senior Israeli officials had concluded that the Islamic movement Hamas had suspended its bombing campaign inside Israel in the past two months. Leaders of 13 Palestinian groups, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, met in Cairo in early December to debate a ceasefire with Israel. Palestinian Prime Minster Ahmed Qureia had specially flown to Cairo to persuade the militant groupings to adopt a more flexible stance on the issue.

The militant Palestinian factions responded by agreeing to halt suicide attacks inside Israel but were silent about ending attacks on Israeli settlers and soldiers in the occupied territories. Palestinians consider Israeli settlers and soldiers in Gaza and the West Bank as legitimate targets. The West Bank and Gaza have been in a virtual state of siege by Israeli forces for the last three years. The conditional truce offer by the Palestinian militants has been rejected by Israel and the U.S. However, Israel has indicated that it will halt military operations in the occupied territories as long as there is "peace on the ground".

The Israeli government had noticeably increased its military activity in the occupied territories, including targeted killings, just before the Cairo meeting and the signing of the "Geneva accord". It was an attempt to induce the militant Islamic groupings to resort to violence and in the bargain see to it that the peace initiative was undermined.

The prominent signatories to the new unofficial peace initiative are Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli Justice Minister, and Yasser Abed Rabbo, a former Palestinian Information Minister. Under the agreement, Palestinians would be granted sovereignty over the Arab neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem and over Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount). Under the plan, Jerusalem is to be the capital of both the countries, with guaranteed access to everyone to the holy sites. Most of Jerusalem's old city will be under Palestinian control. The Israeli Army would withdraw from most of the West Bank and from all of the Gaza Strip. Most Jewish settlements will be dismantled and evacuated. Israel would be allowed to retain most of the illegal settlements it has built up over the years along the "green line" dividing Israel from the occupied territories. Israel will have to surrender some of its own land in the desert near Gaza.

Controversially, from the Palestinian point of view, the agreement stated that the overwhelming majority of the displaced Palestinians will have to forgo the "right of return" to Israel proper. Only 30,000 Palestinians will have the right to return to their homes in Israel. Generations of Palestinians, living in refugee camps scattered all over West Asia, have long nurtured the dream of returning to the land confiscated by the Israeli state. This was one of the crucial issues that led to the breakdown of Camp David II at the fag end of the Clinton presidency. The Palestinian state envisaged in the Geneva accord will be a demilitarised one but would control its own borders. A multinational force would be deployed to supervise the implementation of the peace plan

ADEL HANA/AP

Members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed group attached to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, during a demonstration against the Geneva accord, in a refugee camp in Gaza Strip on December 5.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who was present in Geneva to witness the signing of the accord, said that Israelis were left with only one "basic" choice if they are serious about peace: "Do we want permanent peace with all our neighbours, or do we want to retain our settlements throughout the occupied territories?" He took a dig at Ariel Sharon by saying that political leaders "are the obstacle to peace".

Palestinian critics of the new peace plan say that the unofficial agreement violates international law. According to them, the agreement condones "Israeli colonialism" and gives legitimacy to Israel's position as the only country whose territory belongs not to its citizens but "to Jewish people everywhere". This in practical terms means that Jews and even those pretending to be Jews can come from all over the world and settle down in Israel, in the process superseding the rights of native Palestinians. Israel, which is responsible for the world's remaining biggest refugee problem, is given another green signal to continue with its expansionist policies.

Palestinians point out that Israel has violated 70 United Nations Security Council resolutions so far. In the second week of December a few days after signing of the "Geneva accord", the U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution asking the International Court of Justice to rule on the legality of the wall Israel is building in the West Bank. Only eight countries, led by the U.S., opposed the resolution.

Ninety countries, including India, voted in favour of the resolution. Seventy-four countries, led by the European Union, abstained from voting on the resolution. A European Union spokesman said that though the E.U. was alarmed about the wall and the negative effect it was having on the peace process, it believed that seeking a legal judgment at this time was not conducive to the kick-starting of the peace process once again.

The Bush administration had vetoed a similar resolution in the U.N. Security Council in October. The resolution followed a General Assembly vote in October 2003, demanding that Israel tear down its so-called "security fence". U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had described the construction of the wall as a "deeply counterproductive act" causing "serious socio-economic harm" to the Palestinian people.

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