Mideast peace has long way to go<\/p>\n
By Oei Eng Goan<\/p>\n
The United Nations held a two-day international seminar for
\njournalists on the question of Palestine, one of the longest-
\nlasting and most complicated political problems of this century,
\nin Madrid last month. Indonesia was represented by The Jakarta
\nPost.<\/p>\n
MADRID (JP): There seems to be just a glimmer of light at the
\nend of the Israeli-Palestinian tunnel after half a century of
\nIsrael's occupation of Palestinians' homeland and numerous
\nagreements signed.<\/p>\n
Diplomats and political analysts attending a two-day inter
\nnational seminar in the Spanish capital two weeks ago came out
\nwith different opinions regarding the Palestinian question. Some
\nsaid the peace accord reached between the Palestine Liberation
\nOrganization (PLO) and Israel at the White House in September
\n1993 -- known as the Oslo Agreement and sealed by a historic
\nhandshake between then Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and
\nPLO Chairman Yasser Arafat -- was a watershed in Palestinian-
\nIsraeli ties, while others said the peace process was dead and a
\nnew deal was needed to reinvigorate true peace in the region.<\/p>\n
Still more others said that a fair share of ancestral lands
\nfor both the Israelis and the Palestinians was an important
\nfactor for the peace process and that regional acceptance of
\nPalestine statehood was far more important than territorial
\naggrandizement.<\/p>\n
Pros and cons in the current process were discussed candidly,
\nand sometimes emotionally, in the seminar. Held on March 23 and
\nMarch 24 and attended by dozens of analysts from the Palestinian
\nNational Authority, Israel, the United States and a number of
\nEuropean and Arab countries as well as by 30 journalists from
\nAsia, Africa, Europe and Latin America, the summit focused on
\n"Prospects for Peace" in Palestine.<\/p>\n
The seminar was considered important as two important events
\nare to take place in the region next month: a possible Palestinian
\ndeclaration of statehood on May 4, the deadline of the Oslo
\nagreement, and a May 17 Israeli general election.<\/p>\n
Sulaiman Al-Najjab, a member of the Executive Committee of the
\nPLO, told participants that as the Palestinians were dedicated to
\npeace and to abiding by the Oslo Agreement, they were committed
\nto implementing the plan for declaration of a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
"The Israelis do not have the right to state whether the
\nPalestinians can have the state or not," Al-Najjab said, refer
\nring to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's threat that he
\nwould annex parts of the West Bank under Israeli rule if Arafat
\nunilaterally declared a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
The Palestinian General Delegate (ambassador) to Britain and
\nthe Vatican, Afif Safieh, noting that "a sovereign independent
\nstate is undeniably a Palestinian right", said the establishment
\nof a Palestinian state was also a moral obligation of Israel
\nwhich expropriated the land from the Palestinians 50 years ago.<\/p>\n
Safieh called for a third party, other than the United States,
\nto support the existence of a Palestinian state and help create
\npeace in the region.<\/p>\n
"Peace is too important to be left to the Israelis to decide
\nupon," he added.<\/p>\n
Israeli Ambassador Colette Avital, admitting that the process
\nof peace had been slowed down under the Netanyahu government,
\nrefuted the idea that the process was dead.<\/p>\n
"Oslo (Agreement) was a breakthrough for the Palestinians and
\nthe Israelis. It was the only framework. Whatever the government
\nin Israel -- left, right, or center -- it has to accept the Oslo
\nAgreement," said Avital, who is competing for a seat to represent
\nthe Labor Party at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.<\/p>\n
Responding to Al-Najjab's remarks that "peace means full
\nnormalization of ties between Israel and the Palestinian Authori
\nty and (the absence of) Israel's repeated violations of the peace
\nagreements by using security issue as a pretext," Avital said
\nthat both sides had to straighten out the issue as there could
\nnever be peace without security, and vice versa.<\/p>\n
"As the Israeli population has been traumatized and feels a
\ndeep sense of insecurity, one should neither overstate nor
\nunderstate the security issue for the Israelis," she added,
\nobviously referring to the fact that many of its neighboring Arab
\ncountries still oppose the existence of the Jewish state as well
\nas to persistent terrorist actions by Hamas, a group of radical
\nPalestinians who oppose the peace process.<\/p>\n
On the question of the declaration of a Palestinian state,
\npanelists at the seminar were also divided in their opinions.
\nU.S. analyst Henry Siegman, who is the director of the Middle
\nEast Project and Council on Foreign Relations, said there was a
\nlikelihood that the international community would not recognize
\nunilateral action by the Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Safieh, stressing that "statehood is the absolute right of the
\nPalestinian people" and that Palestinians should not be treated
\nas "children of a lesser God", pointed out that should Arafat
\npostpone the declaration, it could be exploited by Netanyahu for
\npolitical gain for his right-wing Likud government during the
\ncoming election by claiming to the Israelis that "he is the one
\nwho can lower the Palestinians' expectations".<\/p>\n
He said the announcement of statehood should go on as
\nscheduled with "East Jerusalem for Palestine and West Jerusalem
\nfor Israel".<\/p>\n
Avital, however, said that even with the postponement, there
\nwas already a de facto recognition of the existence of a
\nPalestinian state by the world community, including Israel.
\n"Eighty percent of Israelis accept the idea of a Palestinian
\nstate," she said, adding that as a strong nation Israel was not
\nafraid of giving territorial concessions to the Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Other thorny issues discussed at the meeting -- which some
\ntimes turned into a heated debate that had to be silenced by Mian
\nQadrud-Din, a UN official chairing the seminar -- were the
\nexpansion of Jewish settlement in the West Bank, the question of
\nJerusalem as Israel's capital and the Palestinian economy, which
\nrelies largely on foreign aid and transfers of funds from Israel.
\nIt was revealed that Israeli funds to the Palestinian Authority
\nreached US$535 million last year compared to $488 million the
\nyear before and $430 million in 1996, not including the income of
\nthe large Palestinian labor force employed in the Jewish state.<\/p>\n
Many agreed that Jerusalem could become a dangerous bone of
\ncontention because it involves the interests of Christian, Muslim
\nand Jewish communities, while continued expansion of the Jewish
\nsettlement could jeopardize the current peace process.<\/p>\n
Participants also agreed that both the Palestinians and the
\nIsraelis had to boost their confidence building measures under
\nthe auspices of an international organization, such as the United
\nNations, through enhanced cultural and economic cooperation to
\nachieve lasting peace in the region.<\/p>\n
Prospects for a comprehensive peace in the Middle East will
\ncertainly become greater if Israel returns unconditionally the
\nremaining lands it seized from the Arab nations in 1967. If this
\nhappens, the younger generation of the Arabs, Palestinians and
\nIsraelis will feel secure to work together toward a better and
\nprosperous future in the coming century.<\/p>\n
Window: Jerusalem could become a dangerous bone of contention
\nbecause it involves the interests of Christian, Muslim and
\nJewish communities, while continued expansion of the Jewish
\nsettlement could jeopardize the current peace process.<\/p>",
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