On The Brink of Disaster
The Crisis of the Peace-Process

The king is naked. In spite of assurances and flowery declarations, the Israeli government, by its refusal to implement the signed agreements and to carry out its commitments under the Oslo-Wye-Sharm interim accords, has resolutely plunged the whole peace-process into a most dangerous crisis.

The components of this crisis are well identified. Besides the continuation of settlement activities, land confiscations and house demolitions, all of them "unilateral measures liable to prejudice the outcome of final status negotiations", and as such contrary to both the spirit and the letter of the signed agreements, the Israeli government has demonstrated a manifest disrespect for both the substance and the time-line of implementation of the accords. It has refused to implement the third phase of the second redeployment, refusing to evacuate Palestinian populated areas in the vicinity of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and insisting on withdrawal from discontinued unpopulated areas. It is also rejecting the very principle of the third redeployment, in an attempt to link it to final-status negotiations, and it still refuses to allow the operation of the Northern route "Safe Passage" between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

On the track of final-status negotiations, six months have been wasted in procrastination. The Israeli negotiating team has been reciting the well-known Israeli official positions in defiance of international legality and universally recognized principles: repeating the Israeli demand to annex half of the occupied territory, reaffirming the Israeli refusal to dismantle illegal settlements, pledging to perpetuate the illegal annexation of occupied East-Jerusalem, vowing not to recognize the right of return of Palestinian refugees. It has then, in view of the "persistent gap" between the positions of the parties, asked to do away with the agreed upon time-table, and engage in an open-ended process, where the goodwill (or lack of goodwill) of the occupant becomes the sole dynamic (or regressive) factor.

The PLO, the PNA and the Palestinian people as a whole, who have chosen Peace as a historical, strategic option, reject adamantly these attempts to empty the peace-process of its substance, and to impose a diktat on the Palestinian negotiators.

We have said it over and over again: only a resolute intervention of the international community, of the American sponsors of the negotiations, of the European Union, of the Arab, Islamic and Non-Aligned countries, and of all peace-loving forces in the world, can now salvage this gravely damaged peace-process. Only the forceful introduction of the parameters of justice and international legality can put this process back on the track of achieving a just, mutually acceptable and therefore lasting peace, paving the way to the historical reconciliation between the two peoples, and opening the door to a comprehensive regional peace. And we seize this occasion to greet, as the PLO Central Council did a few days ago, the Israeli Peace forces who work and struggle for the same objectives. They must be aware that their courageous action helps keep hope alive in the hearts of our people.

To rescue the peace-process from the abyss into which Israeli rejection has driven it, the Palestinian leadership has put forward the following proposals:

1. The remaining phases of redeployment should be immediately implemented, within a defined short-run time-schedule.
2. The remaining elements of the Interim agreements should be implemented at once, through consultation and sharing.
3. The Framework agreement should be concluded in due time, or be skipped altogether as an intermediary stage.
4. The deadline of September 13^th 2000 to reach a Permanent-Status agreement should be maintained and respected.
5. The Government of Israel must recognize the binding character of UN resolutions 242 and 338, as well as other relevant international instruments, in particular Resolution 194 (1948) of the General Assembly, which provides for the Palestinian refugees right of return.
6. Unilateral measures, and in particular settlement activities, must be stopped at once.

Failure to move in this direction will bring the whole region on the brink of disaster, and will frustrate the hopes our peoples have formed to get out of the cycle of violence, war and confrontation, and to redirect their efforts towards development, prosperity and cooperation.

It may be that the Israeli Prime minister's failure to honour his own solemn commitments stems from his domestic political problems. It does not make it more acceptable. But the attempt to regain popularity by stepping up military aggression against the people and State of Lebanon can only make things worse. Israeli state terrorism in Lebanon, and the criminal attacks on Lebanese civilian populations, besides causing a spectacular regression in the prospect of Israeli-Syrian and Israeli-Lebanese negotiations, will only reinforce the idea, among all the peoples of the region, that Peace with Israel is a lure, while convincing the Israeli people that violence remains the basis of Israel's relationship to the rest of the area.

It is everyone's responsibility not to let this happen.

8.2.2000

The Editor