PALESTINIANS set seven conditions for talks in a ‘stormy’ session with Israel last week.
The session of ‘saving the negotiations,’ held in Jerusalem for around eight hours until dawn on Thursday, turned into a session for ‘trading threats’ between the members of the Israeli and Palestinian delegations, despite the presence of Martin Indyk, the special US envoy for the peace process.
Informed Palestinian sources said that the meeting held between the heads of the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams, Tzipi Livni and Saeb Erekat, besides Yitzhaq Molkho, envoy of the Israeli prime minister, and Majid Faraj, chief of the Palestinian General Intelligence, was ‘stormy and very complicated’.
The Palestinian accession to some international conventions and pacts and Israel’s failure to release the fourth batch of prisoners dominated the atmosphere of the charged meeting and caused big differences to erupt, as well as trading of accusations on spoiling the negotiations. The negotiators were about to engage in a fistfight at many moments.
According to the sources, the chief of Palestinian intelligence, Majid Faraj, overreacted and responded to the Israeli threats to punish the Palestinians severely by other threats. He criticised the ‘unfair’ US position and was about to get into a fistfight with the participants.
The sources said: ‘Faraj was about to turn these into negotiations by hands.’ They added: ‘The negotiations are breathing their last. There is no way to save them now except through a miracle.’
However, the sources affirmed that the Palestinians are committed to continuing the dialogue until the end of the month, which is the deadline agreed on for the end of the negotiating process, in order to give a chance to US Secretary of State John Kerry to make progress and avoid the accusation of foiling the negotiations.
Hours before the negotiating session on Wednesday, 2 April, Kerry called Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and urged them to make difficult concessions to give a push to the political process.
The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that officials in the US Administration conveyed strongly worded messages to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Bureau in Jerusalem and the Presidency Office in Ramallah.
They warned that the efforts of US mediation are over and that the responsibility for resolving the current crisis lies with both sides if they want to do that. Otherwise, they can bear the consequences of failure.
Sources within Fatah revealed that Abbas responded to the US threats by affirming that he is going ahead with accession to international conventions and pacts, whatever the cost. Saeb Erekat said on Thursday in a closed meeting with Fatah officials: ‘Abu-Mazin (Abbas) told me this morning that even if he gets martyred, he will not go back on any step that he has taken.’
A Fatah official, who preferred anonymity, said: ‘The leadership has set seven clear conditions for the extension of the negotiations.’ He added: ‘First, unambiguous and explicit recognition by Netanyahu of the borders of Palestine on the 1967 lands, with East Jerusalem as its capital, as a basis for the negotiations.
‘Second, the release of 1,200 prisoners, according to a previous agreement with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. This includes senior officials, such as Fatah leader Marwan al-Barghuthi; Ahmad Sa’adat, secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; and Fu’ad al-Shawbaki, a major general in the Palestinian Presidency.
‘Third, stopping settlement activity in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
‘Fourth, lifting the siege on the Gaza Strip.
‘Fifth, Israel’s approval of reunion applications for 15,000 Palestinians. These have been submitted in advance.
‘Sixth, the return of the persons deported from the Church of Nativity.
‘Finally, expanding the influence of the Palestinian Authority in Areas C in the West Bank, stopping arrests and assassinations, allowing the resumption of operations of the institutions that were shut down in Jerusalem, and building in remote areas in the West Bank.’
The Palestinian official said that in the event of not approving these requests and the expiry of the deadline set for the negotiations by the end of this month, Abu-Mazin will sign a second set of applications for accession to international conventions, then a third and a fourth, depending on developments.
Kerry on Thursday acknowledged that the ongoing negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are facing critical moments.
He added that ‘the round of negotiations that took place last night between the two sides achieved some progress. However, the gap is still there, and there should be work quickly to close it.’
Kerry warned, from Algeria, that the failure of the Israeli and Palestinian sides to find a mechanism for dialogue between them will be a disaster for them.
Kerry said that he would continue his efforts to reach a formula that brings the two sides back to the negotiating table ‘whatever it takes.’ However, he pointed out that he cannot ‘force Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu or Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas to continue the negotiations.’
The US secretary of state urged the two sides to offer substantive concessions and adopt decisive decisions to make the peace process succeed. He said that the leaders of Israel and the Palestinians should now take charge. He cited a common saying that you can lead a horse to the river, but you cannot make it drink.
The US secretary of state said that the ability of the US Administration to push the two sides forward is restricted.
The ‘peace process’ faced a crisis last week when Israel refused to release the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners, according to a previous agreement, unless it receives assurances that the Palestinians will continue the negotiations beyond the end of April, which is the deadline set for the negotiations.
However, the Palestinians responded angrily and signed documents to accede to 15 international conventions and pacts, including the four Geneva Conventions.
The Palestinian step came while Kerry was putting a new deal on the table in a bid to overcome the crisis. The deal stipulates the release of the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners, along with hundreds of other prisoners, in return for the extension of the negotiations and Israel getting the Jewish spy in a US jail, Jonathan Pollard.
Mahmud al-Alul, member of the Fatah Central Committee, said that the president and the Palestinian leadership have not closed the door to the international efforts, but that accession to international conventions and pacts is a right for the state of Palestine and will be completed by other steps.
This step came in response to the unilateral Israeli policy and the Israeli intransigence, which destroyed these efforts. Kerry said that ‘the current fight and the dispute are not over the fundamental issue, which is the final-status agreement. They are over the process that leads to this.’
• The Israeli TV weekly satire show ‘A Beautiful Country’ carries a sketch of the signing ceremony on an agreement on ‘the collapse’ of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, moderated by US Secretary of State John Kerry speaking in ‘Google Translate’ Hebrew.
After expressing their mutual dislike, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas tear up the agreement presented by Kerry, who declares that he will ‘never ever’ come back to the region.
On Friday, Abbas Zaki, member of the Fatah Central Committee, said that the Palestinian leadership is operating with confidence and with high morale, and has managed to expose the US incompetence in dealing with the Israeli extremists.
Zaki added that the authority is going to the UN to get membership in spite of America, which views the situation through Israeli Likud eyes in its mediation of the political process. He said that Martin Indyk, the US mediator in the negotiations, is a Zionist who is defending Israeli interests.
Zaki said that ‘if the Israelis think that we will trade our cause for the release of 30 prisoners, they are wrong.’ Zaki called on all the factions to work together, because the Palestinian cause is being targeted from the ocean to the Gulf, and the Arab position will not remain unchanged. He also urged to no longer rely on enemies.
