It has been almost two months since the last deadly attack on Israeli civilians by a Palestinian suicide bomber, but in the meantime, the Israeli army has killed more than 70 Palestinians, among them 17 children. Amidst the hopelessness, some people have turned to the so-called “Geneva Accord” as a way out. In his commentary published in The Chicago Tribune, EI’s Ali Abunimah says that the accord offers only false hope, however, he sees prospects for long-term peace between Israelis and Palestinians in their common homeland. Read more about The False Hope of the Geneva Accord
Fifty-five years of historical injustice does not subside with the signing of a peace treaty, official or unofficial, whatever the extent of public relations invested in the effort. Prospects for peace must start to be measured by how well justice is served, and not by how much fanfare is generated. To put the Palestinians and Israelis on the track toward historic reconciliation, Sam Bahour argues that Israel must stop holding the region hostage. It must begin by unilaterally ending the illegal occupation of Palestinians and working to establish a Palestinian state based on internationally accepted borders and international legitimacy. Read more about Can It Ever Really End?
One wonders why the Geneva Accord has not created any serious debate inside the Palestinian community. For the past three decades, tens if not hundreds of initiatives have been launched and each new one has claimed that it is better than the previous initiative. In almost every Arab summit since the early eighties, there has been a peace initiative that did not see the light of day for various and sundry reasons; the most prevalent reason has been the continuous Israeli rejection of Arab peace plans. Rifat Odeh Kassis calls for implementation, no more new ideas. Read more about No more ideas, we need implementation
Nothing in the horizon seems to hold the key to a lasting peace, despite unusually loud rhetoric surrounding the latest two peace initiatives, the Geneva Accord and the Nusseibeh-Ayalon Statement. Sam Bahour and Michael Dahan say that if their two peoples and official representatives cannot sign on to this 98-word declaration (only 31 words more than the Balfour Declaration of 1917), then it is irrelevant to hide behind volumes of peace initiatives and accords that no one will read but the majority will oppose. Read more about The Jerusalem Declaration
Recently, Palestinian farmers living in proximity to Israel’s Separation Wall received an order signed by Major General Moshe Kaplinski, commander of Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, declaring that their lands lying between the barrier and the border with Israel had been classified as “a closed military zone”. Henceforth, the order stated, only Israeli citizens and Jews from other countries would have unrestricted access to these lands. Palestinians who wished to enter or continue living in these areas would have to apply for special permits. Michael Shaik comments. Read more about Time is on whose side?
The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, initiated through aggressive military campaigns in 1948 and 1967, has been consolidated and standardised through a continuous and ongoing assault on the very environment of Palestine. The Israeli grip on the Palestinian Territories has been ensured through a paradoxical “violence of construction.” Read more about The Violence of Construction: Israel's Wall and International Law
Representing no official body, Palestinians close to the PA and members of the Israeli left have signed a detailed plan for a peace agreement. Switzerland financed the exercise, whose result is known as the Geneva Accord. The chief figure on the Israeli side is Yossi Beilin, formerly a central leader in the Labor Party and an architect of the Oslo Accords. His Palestinian counterpart is Yasser Abed Rabo, the PA’s former Minister of Information. The new accord places before the two peoples, for the first time, an idea of the approximate price that each would have to pay in order to gain a peace agreement that the other might perhaps someday be persuaded to live with. As to the Accord itself, we shall focus on two questions. How far exactly are the signers willing to go? How relevant is the document? The following editorial is reprinted from the current edition of Challenge magazine. Read more about The Geneva Accord: Beyond Time and Space
The Road Map is in tatters, and not by accident. It is business as usual for the most right wing government in Israel’s history. Business is building, and building is booming.For many months now, before and after the launch of the Road Map, land has been confiscated and homes and agricultural land levelled for the construction of the “separation” wall along the north of the West Bank. People are being separated from their land and each other, greenhouses and crops have been destroyed and towns and villages are being encircled by the wall as it snakes through the West Bank annexing land to Israel. Anwar Darkazally contributed this piece to EI. Read more about Building to destroy: The 'separation' wall and the future of Palestine
It is astonishing how little the Palestinian leadership learns from its past mistakes? asks regular EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah. The so-called “Geneva Accord” — an unofficial document agreed upon by former Israeli officials and Palestinians linked with the Palestinian Authority — is a new blunder that will do enormous harm to the Palestinian position, while doing nothing to extricate the Palestinian leadership from its sinking state. Abu Nimah looks at some the agreement in detail and looks at its provisions on key issues like land and refugees. Read more about Geneva Accord: Why can't the PA learn from its mistakes?
Because of the Oslo process, the basis for a viable and minimally fair two-state solution has been completely destroyed. The Israeli “peace camp” and the Palestinian leadership ought to have learned from the calamities they helped bring about and changed their ways. The so-called “Geneva Accord,” an informal agreement prepared by Israelis, led by former Labor Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and other Oslo-era luminaries, and Palestinians close to Yasser Arafat, demonstrates a determination to repeat the tragic errors of the past. EI’s Ali Abunimah explains. Read more about A disastrous dead end: the Geneva Accord
