The Year of Peace, the Year of the Palestinian State

The second month of this century opens with an almost feverish acceleration of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, after long weeks of stagnation: following President Arafat's summit meetings with American and European leaders, on the morrow of the Davos economic summit, and on the eve of a new visit by the US special envoy Dennis Ross to the area, negotiations have resumed at three levels: implementation of the Oslo-Cairo-Taba-Hebron-Wye-Sharm interim agreement; so-called "marathon" talks to reach a Framework Agreement on Permanent Status by the February deadline, after both the Palestinian side and the American sponsors rejected an Israeli suggestion to postpone the target date; and a solemn session of the Steering Committee of the Multilateral Arab-Israeli and International Negotiations in Moscow, where the multilateral track of the Madrid Process was opened just eight years and a few days ago.

At the same time, the PLO Central Council, a forum elected by the Palestinian National Council, where all Palestinian political forces are represented, is meeting in Gaza to assess the situation and define the guidelines (and the red lines) of the Palestinian negotiating strategy.

Will the miracle happen, and will all this diplomatic activity at last give birth to that just and lasting peace to which we all aspire ?

It is easy to see why we are still far from the conditions which would allow the "historical reconciliation between the two peoples" promised in the Oslo-Washington Declaration of Principles. The signs are visible everywhere on the wounded landscape of the Palestinian countryside, disfigured by a frantic settlement drive, the expansion of Israeli colonies and the construction of new "bypass roads" on confiscated Palestinian land. It can be felt whenever an ordinary Palestinian citizen wants to move from the West Bank to Gaza, or the reverse, or to occupied Jerusalem, and faces the Israeli Iron Curtain. The citizens whose homes are demolished because they were supposedly built without the permit the occupant never delivers feel it. So do the families of the prisoners still not released, so do the Jerusalemites whose rights and property and daily under attack, so do the millions of Palestinian refugees and Displaced Persons still not able to enjoy their basic right of return. So does any one who listens to the Israeli conditions for peace: annexation of half of the West Bank to constitute "settlement blocs", no Palestinian control over the Palestinian-Jordanian and the Palestinian-Egyptian borders, the pursuit of occupation and annexation in East Jerusalem, and a blank refusal to acknowledge the universally recognized right of Palestinian Refugees to Return and compensation for their property. So does anyone who has witnessed, during the last ten days, the systematic displacement of Israeli checkpoints deeper into occupied Palestinian territory. Israeli leaders and Barak are often alluding to "painful decisions". Painful for whom ? Do they mean that the Israeli side will take decisions that will be painful to the Palestinians, or do they really mean to abandon the rhetorics of force and the practice of unilateral faits accomplis ?

Only a resolute intervention of the international community on the side of international legality, on the side of "fairness and equity", can compensate the gross imbalance of material power on the ground, and put the negotiations on the right track. The stakes are peace and stability for the entire region, or a tragic relapse into the cycle of conflict. The world should not allow our neighbors to miss this opportunity. We, on our part, have made peace a strategic choice. The process, as we have always emphasized, cannot be open-ended. Hopefully, and as solemnly promised in Sharm-el-Sheikh, the year 2000 will be the year of a final peace-agreement between the two independent states of Palestine and Israel. But if negotiations were to fail once again, and in conformity with our commitments, we will exercise our inalienable and universally recognized right to self-determination and proclaim our sovereignty on our land, in coordination with our Arab brothers, our European friends and the American sponsors of the Middle-East Peace Process. This is also on the agenda of the PLO Central Council meeting opening on February 2^nd in Gaza.

The spectacular escalation of military actions in South Lebanon, in the meantime, which comes as an illustration of the stalemate in the Israeli-Syrian negotiations, has cooled down the enthusiasm of commentators who were predicting Israeli-Syrian peace within days. It has also reassured, or disappointed, those who feared, or hoped, that progress on the Syrian track would isolate us and cause delays on the Palestinian track. Syria and Lebanon did not attend the Moscow meeting of the Multilateral Steering Committee, and tension is mounting. Committed to simultaneous progress on all tracks, the US administration has no choice but to use difficulties on one to push forward on the other. For Peace, even if not achieved in one single motion, will be comprehensive, or will remain a dream.

In the meantime, our country has known an exceptional snow-storm. And as geography disregards political borders, we shared this storm with our Israeli neighbors. Water resources were fortunately renewed, but thousand of trees were damaged, and agriculture badly hit. Roads were cut and electricity lines disconnected. But Palestine stood the test: Palestinian technicians, firemen, police and security men, municipal employees and other civil servants worked night and day, restored the lines and opened the roads, often assisted by simple citizens, demonstrating a real dedication to public welfare. We are proud of them and thank them all.

1.2.2000

The Editor