LAND swaps should be a result of negotiations with Israel rather than an ‘advance payment’ given by Arab states on behalf of the Palestinians, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee said on Thursday.
‘Our stance (as Palestinians) is very clear. We want a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and 138 states have voted in favour of that,’ said Muhammad Ishtayya.
If there are changes to the borders, land swaps must be on an equal basis, Ishtayya said. ‘If we give one centimetre, we must take one centimetre in return.
‘Practically, we realise that lands occupied before 1949 are Palestinian lands and that Israel will try to talk about settlement blocs.
‘The way Israel interprets the Arab attitude is very dangerous as the Israelis will try to understand that this attitude allows them to talk about annexing settlement blocs as if they were part of the Arab Peace Initiative.
‘This is all unacceptable to us because we view all settlement activities as illegal and a real obstacle to peace.’
He added: ‘I don’t think the Arab Peace Initiative should be amended, because if this case is open, it would be difficult to close it by any means.’
Ishtayya highlighted that Israel had always rejected the Arab Peace Initiative.
‘The only new attitude was that Tzipi Livni welcomed the new Arab attitude. The Palestinian side hasn’t been looking forward to that attitude, but to a sovereign state based on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.’
Livni, Israel’s lead peace negotiator, praised the concession by the Arab League that Israel and Palestine could trade land in a bid to move the peace process forward.
She said on Tuesday: ‘It’s definitely an important step, I welcome it.’
At a meeting in Washington on Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry met with top Arab League officials to discuss the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, a Saudi proposal which would see 22 Arab countries normalising ties with Israel in return for a withdrawal from lands it occupied during the 1967 Six Day War.
Speaking after the talks, Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim, who led the delegation, said that any deal should be based on a two-state solution with the borders defined by the lines which existed before June 4th, 1967.
He also expressed support for a proposal by US President Barack Obama for a ‘comparable and mutual agreed minor swap of the land’ between Israelis and Palestinians to reflect the realities of the burgeoning communities on the ground.
Meanwhile, Hamas leader Khalid Mishaal on Thursday rejected an Arab League endorsement of land swaps between Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Mishaal said such a concession would harm the Palestinian cause. Mishaal said the Kerry-backed plan was a bid to find economic peace between Arab states and Israel by integrating it into the region.
He will use all available options to liberate the Palestinian territories and that it was his goal to do so over the next four years. He also pledged greater efforts to release Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
Mishaal said Hamas is prepared to implement a unity deal with rival faction Fatah. The deal, he said, should be based on partnership and the holding of elections.
His comments follow reports that President Mahmud Abbas will head to Cairo in May to advance the unity deal.
Egypt is expected to push for a Palestinian unity government after the meeting, as well as a date for elections.
Meanwhile, Fatah leader Faisal Abu Shahla said that there are no plans for meetings between the two.
Fatah and Hamas signed an agreement in Cairo in 2011, pledging to set up an interim government of independents to pave the way for elections within 12 months, but its implementation stalled over the government’s make-up.
• Israeli settlers began construction on Thursday of an illegal outpost near the Zatara checkpoint, a Palestinian Authority official said.
Israeli settlement monitor Ghassan Daghlas said settlers erected 10 mobile homes surrounded by fencing, which were then hooked up to residents’ water and electricity supply. The new site is near the Elon Moreh settlement.
Head of the Israeli settlement movement for the Nablus area, Gershon Miska, has moved his offices to the site, Daghlas added. The land belongs to the Khbeisa family, he said.
l A key witness in the corruption trial of Israel’s former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman reiterated his accusations against him at a court hearing on Thursday.
Ex-deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon says he was pushed by Lieberman to give an ambassadorial posting to Zeev Ben Aryeh, who had been accused of giving Lieberman confidential information about a police investigation into his affairs in 2008.
At a first hearing on February 17, Lieberman pleaded not guilty to the charges in a trial which will decide his political future.
Ayalon told the Jerusalem court on Thursday that Lieberman had asked him in 2009 to nominate Ben Aryeh, ‘the best candidate for the Latvia post’.
Ayalon headed the ministry’s appointments committee at the time.
According to the indictment, Lieberman was allegedly tipped off by Ben Aryeh, who was ambassador to Belarus at the time, that police had contacted their counterparts in Minsk for help with an inquiry into his affairs.
He is suspected of then seeking to reward Ben Aryeh with the Latvia job.
Ayalon was then unceremoniously ousted from the electoral list of Lieberman’s hardline Yisrael Beitenu party ahead of this year’s January election.
When it became clear in December that Lieberman was to face trial, he immediately resigned from his cabinet post, although he remains an MP.
Lieberman’s main concern is to avoid a conviction including both a finding of ‘moral turpitude’ and a prison sentence, which would bar him from serving as a minister for seven years.
• An Israeli military court has reduced the administrative detention of two hunger-striking prisoners from Jenin, the lawyer for the Palestinian Authority Detainees Ministry said last Thursday.
Jawad Boulos said the military court ordered the early release of Jaafar Izz al-Din and Tariq Kadan by two weeks and are due to leave Israeli custody on May 8th.
Izz al-Din and Kadan have been on hunger strike for 90 days in protest over being held under administrative detention. They ended their strike once the decision for early release was announced following a protracted appeal, Boulos said.
According to prisoner support group Addameer, between 2007 and 2011, 8,157 administrative detention orders were issued by Israel. As of February 2013, there were 178 Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli custody, including nine members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Administrative detention is a practice used by Israel to detain Palestinians on detention orders that range from one to six months, renewable indefinitely.
Last Tuesday long term hunger striker Samer Issawi ended his protest after signing an agreement with Israel which guarantees his release, Bolous said.
The deal will see Issawi released to his hometown of Jerusalem after serving eight months in jail, after 266 days of refusing food in protest against his rearrest by Israeli forces.
