Another Failed Meeting: Israeli Final Status Terms Leaked
In this handout photo provided by the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO), Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on August 28, 2007 in Jerusalem. (Photo by Amos BenGershom/GPO via Getty Images)28 August 2007
Al Jazeera has obtained a document claiming to be Israel's terms on which final status negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians can begin.
The Palestinian president and the Israeli leader have been discussing the issue of Palestinian statehood in two hours of talks on Tuesday, an Israeli spokesman said.
Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's Jerusalem correspondent, who has seen the Israeli document, said it "lays out some broad principles that Israel believes both sides should sign up to as a starting point for formal negotiations".
"Some of the things are fairly obvious - renouncing words and actions associated with war, recognition of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
"Also, previous peace endeavours such as the Madrid conference of 1991 and the declaration of principles signed between Yasser Arafat and the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1993."
Rowland explained the document looked at the possible borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state, saying Israel would withdraw from "large sections" of the West Bank and return to 1967 borders.
"In other words," said Rowland, "the borders before the 1967 war - with what the document describes as 'reciprocal modifications'."
She said that, according to the document: "The Israelis would want to hang on to some of those main settlement blocks and in exchange would give the Palestinians other bits of territory from Israel, most probably parts of the Negev desert."
Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's Gaza correspondent, said that Palestinian politicians were insisting they had not seen the document.
"Fundamental issues"
Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah faction lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas, held his talks with Ehud Olmert at Olmert's official Jerusalem residence.
The two last met three weeks ago in the West Bank town of Jericho.
David Baker, the Israeli spokesman, declining to define the subjects discussed, said: "They spoke about fundamental issues which would lead to the establishment of two states for two peoples."
Baker described the two-hour, "one-on-one" as "very constructive, positive and open".
But Israeli political commentators said Olmert, weakened by the governmental failings and those of the military in last year's war on Hezbollah in Lebanon, was in no rush to take on such issues in depth and risk further splitting the cabinet.
Walid Batrawi, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the West Bank, said Palestinians also had low expectations of Tuesday's meeting.
One Ramallah resident said: "There is nothing serious building up from these meetings. I am being cynical, but not totally negative. Something might come up, but there are no indicators."
Another Palestinian man told Al Jazeera: "We hold meeting, nothing materialises. We only get promises, false promises from the Israelis."
Restrictions
Palestinians accuse Olmert of failing to deliver on what they say were promises at earlier meetings to revise travel restrictions in the territory and scrap some of the checkpoints that restrict movement between towns and villages.
Citing security concerns, Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, has balked at the removal of roadblocks.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, called the Abbas-Olmert meeting another attempt to isolate it. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas official, saying the meeting would "end in complete failure".
"Such meetings can never achieve anything as long as the Israeli occupation continues to deny the rights of our people," he said.
The meeting comes ahead of a US-sponsored Middle East conference in November.
Source
The Palestinian president and the Israeli leader have been discussing the issue of Palestinian statehood in two hours of talks on Tuesday, an Israeli spokesman said.
Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's Jerusalem correspondent, who has seen the Israeli document, said it "lays out some broad principles that Israel believes both sides should sign up to as a starting point for formal negotiations".
"Some of the things are fairly obvious - renouncing words and actions associated with war, recognition of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
"Also, previous peace endeavours such as the Madrid conference of 1991 and the declaration of principles signed between Yasser Arafat and the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1993."
Rowland explained the document looked at the possible borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state, saying Israel would withdraw from "large sections" of the West Bank and return to 1967 borders.
"In other words," said Rowland, "the borders before the 1967 war - with what the document describes as 'reciprocal modifications'."
She said that, according to the document: "The Israelis would want to hang on to some of those main settlement blocks and in exchange would give the Palestinians other bits of territory from Israel, most probably parts of the Negev desert."
Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's Gaza correspondent, said that Palestinian politicians were insisting they had not seen the document.
"Fundamental issues"
Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah faction lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas, held his talks with Ehud Olmert at Olmert's official Jerusalem residence.
The two last met three weeks ago in the West Bank town of Jericho.
David Baker, the Israeli spokesman, declining to define the subjects discussed, said: "They spoke about fundamental issues which would lead to the establishment of two states for two peoples."
Baker described the two-hour, "one-on-one" as "very constructive, positive and open".
But Israeli political commentators said Olmert, weakened by the governmental failings and those of the military in last year's war on Hezbollah in Lebanon, was in no rush to take on such issues in depth and risk further splitting the cabinet.
Walid Batrawi, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the West Bank, said Palestinians also had low expectations of Tuesday's meeting.
One Ramallah resident said: "There is nothing serious building up from these meetings. I am being cynical, but not totally negative. Something might come up, but there are no indicators."
Another Palestinian man told Al Jazeera: "We hold meeting, nothing materialises. We only get promises, false promises from the Israelis."
Restrictions
Palestinians accuse Olmert of failing to deliver on what they say were promises at earlier meetings to revise travel restrictions in the territory and scrap some of the checkpoints that restrict movement between towns and villages.
Citing security concerns, Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, has balked at the removal of roadblocks.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, called the Abbas-Olmert meeting another attempt to isolate it. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas official, saying the meeting would "end in complete failure".
"Such meetings can never achieve anything as long as the Israeli occupation continues to deny the rights of our people," he said.
The meeting comes ahead of a US-sponsored Middle East conference in November.
Source
posted by HRM Deborah of Israel and the Messenger of Peace at 2:21 AM
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