clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

What is happening behind the scenes in Palestine?

June 7, 2016 at 12:39 pm

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed his agreement in principle to land swaps with Israel during the 28th Arab Ministers’ meeting this month, without any introduction or the inclusion of the issue on the agenda. This coincided with the appointment of far-right settler Avigdor Lieberman to the Israeli government as Defence Minister, who continues to call for the “transfer” of Israel’s Palestinian citizens in Wadi Ara and the Triangle to a Palestinian state. Such coincidences cause those observing Palestinian affairs to wonder what sort of deliberations affecting Palestine’s national constants are going on behind the scenes.

Was the president’s speech regarding land swaps and Lieberman’s appointment simply a coincidence? It is worth noting that the land “exchanges” that the president is talking about include massive settlement colonies with their residents; there will be an “exchange” of both land and people.

Abbas rejected a similar proposal by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak eight years ago. However, in 2013, Qatar, speaking on behalf of the Arab League, called for negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel that include land swaps. This was done with the approval of the Arab League, as announced by the then Qatari Prime Minister, Hamad Bin Jassim Al-Thani.

However, it was not without introduction that the Palestinian president stressed, in discussions regarding the Arab Peace Initiative during the latest foreign ministers’ meeting in Cairo that, “We want it [the initiative] as it was originally, as adopted during the first Arab summit in Beirut.” The condition is that Israel applies it before normalising relations with the Arabs and Muslims.

Abbas’s words were considered to be an official response to the reports published ahead of the meeting regarding Arab communications with Israel which were said to be about the possible amendment of the Arab Initiative. The Palestinian leader’s open rejection of negotiations regarding any amendment, and the joint statement last week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lieberman welcoming discussions to modify the initiative confirm the existence of Arab contact with Israel in this regard.

With Lieberman and his party ensconced in the ruling coalition, he and Netanyahu suddenly announced their support for the establishment of a Palestinian state, although both have dedicated most of their political life trying to kill it off. They also announced their support for reviving negotiations based on the “positive elements” in the Arab Peace Initiative, despite rejecting it ever since it was first adopted in the Beirut Arab Summit in 2002. Netanyahu made support conditional on the initiative reflecting the dramatic changes in the region since 2002. This leaves them with no reasons to reject the French proposal, wrote Uzi Baram in Haaretz.

According to Gerald Steinberg, a political science professor at Bar-Ilan University, “If Netanyahu and Lieberman are looking to move away from the status quo, then this could help put off international efforts to impose a solution” on Israel. Furthermore, in a statement last Tuesday, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said that Netanyahu is leading a public relations campaign to improve the image of his ruling coalition after including Lieberman. Despite this, said political analyst Oraib Rantawi in Jordan’s Ad-Dustour, the fact that the extreme right-wing duo suddenly “conformed”, without notice, is unlikely to ease the international pressure on Israel unless the verbal gestures are matched by actions. This was also pointed out by the Washington Post.

The Palestinians, along with their resistance groups, are eager to know why President Abbas spoke about the exchange of land at this time and announce his refusal to amend the Arab Peace Initiative.

Paris hosted a conference for the foreign ministers of states in favour of the French initiative on Friday in order to push negotiations on the final issues to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict in Palestine. The Americans and Russians were there, but not the Israelis, who have rejected the French move. The Washington Post said on Wednesday that the US president is “considering” support for the draft UN Security Council resolution at the end of the year regarding the two-state solution, which will emerge from the French initiative. America has rejected this previously, and sided with Israel, so this is a clear indication of international pressure on the Israelis.

The media coverage of the Arab foreign ministers’ meeting in Cairo on Saturday suggested that Abbas was successful in convincing them about the French proposal. Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki, said that the president is keen on attending the ministerial conference in order to help form a unified position in support of the French that is binding on all Arab countries, regardless of whether they attended the meeting in Paris or not.

However, this portrayal of Palestine playing a leading role in the Arab League is misleading, as borne out by the presence of Arab countries in Paris, such as Saudi Arabia, from where the Arab Peace Initiative came, plus Egypt and Jordan, who are both burdened with the commitments and limitations of the peace treaties they have with Israel. These countries, as well as others, will not allow a Palestinian leadership to change its negotiations course and make it the only means to resolve the conflict in and over Palestine

The Arab League is playing the role of a false witness that gives legitimacy to an initiative rejected, in content and spirit, by most representatives of the Palestinian people. This role will be confirmed in the next Arab summit in Mauritania, which Morocco has refused to host.

The Arab League’s granting of legitimacy to the French initiative and support (due to the PLO’s dependence on it) backs the Paris meeting as a starting point for an integrated process, according to Al-Maliki. This will push Palestinian diplomats into a cycle of direct bilateral negotiations with Israel for the next two years, at least, without any guarantees of settlement activity being frozen or an end to the daily violations of Palestinian rights in the areas allocated to them by the Oslo Accords.

The Arab Peace Initiative was adopted as a basic reference for the French proposal, as well as the Road Map adopted by the International Middle East Quartet in 2002. The Road Map stipulated the establishment of Palestinian security forces committed to security coordination with Israel. It also stipulated that these forces are given the task of security in Area A, which were raided by Israel as part of a large-scale operation coordinated with the US in order to change the Palestinian government, led by the late President Yasser Arafat. However, the Palestinian president is still, to this day, begging for this responsibility to be gradually transferred to the PA.

Translated from Felesteen.ps, 3 June, 2016

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.