MIDDLE EAST: Israelis/Palestinians Agree to Talks, Rifts Remain

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Sep 29 1997 (IPS) - Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to resume wide-ranging peace discussions but rebuilding trust between the two sides remains difficult after preliminary talks here Monday.

The Israeli government and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) agreed to discuss issues ranging from a Palestinian airport and prisoner releases to steps from both sides to create a better negotiating environment, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced.

Calling this a ” medium step forward” in the peace process, she said that the Monday meeting helped halt the recent “downward spiral” in Israeli-PLO relations.

Albright announced the said that on Oct. 6, meetings of Israeli- Palestinian interim committees would resumwe to deal with such long-stalled issues as the contruction of a seaport and airport for the Palestinian Authority and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Chairman of the talks will be Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy and PLO Secretary-General Mahmous Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen), who attended the Monday meeting.

Albright said the following week, from Oct 13, mediator Dennis Ross would participate in talks designed “to create a sound basis” for the peace process. The agenda included discussions on improving security and combatting terrorism, further redeployments of Israeli troops from the West Bank and the acceleration of final “permanent status” talks between the two sides.

Most crucially, Albright said, the two sides would also discuss “the definition and content of a ‘time-out’ regarding unilateral steps,” a main demand of the Palestinians.

Although she could not define yet what actions would be restricted under any ‘time-out’, Albright contended that it would result in a halt of any provocative actions “for the duration of the final status talks.” Potentially this could be a freeze in building Israeli settlements and land confiscation.

“Today’s session was productive, and I believe we are headed in the right direction,” Albright said. “Both foreign minister Levy and Abu Mazen recognised that (progress) would mean fulfilling their mutual responsibilities on the basis of reciprocity.”

However, the actual agreements by the two sides Monday fell well short of what the White House had been seeking earlier. Although Albright pleaded for a ‘time-out’ during her visit this month to the region, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu last week announced plans to build 300 new housing units in the ‘Efrat’ settlement in the occupied West Bank.

At the same time, U.S. developer Irving Moskowitz demanded on proceeding with plans to build a settlement for Jews in the predominantly Arab neighbourhood of Ras al-Amud in east Jerusalem, a step Washington called “unhelpful”.

Significantly, the talks between Levy and Abbas did not include any plan to halt such settlement activity — nor could Albright promise that settlement work would definitely be agreed by both sides to be included in the ‘time-out’.

Abbas said after the talks that the PLO hoped Israel would end unilateral action – from the construction of new or expanded settlements, to the demolition of Palestinian housing and the confiscation of land and identity cards from Palestinians. But Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath admitted that it would not be until the week of Oct. 13 that the two sides could even begin to specify actions that would be halted, let alone to determine when the freeze would take place.

As a result, there is no guarantee that the rightist Netanyahu government, long wary of the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian peace accords, will allow for a freeze on settlements and other acts which the Palestinians find provocative. But Shaath argued that such a halt would have to be agreed to soon by Israel, warning, “Without it, there can be no peace process.”

The October talks are the first new discussions between the two sides since March, when the announcement of a new Israeli settlement in the West Bank area of Jabal Abu Ghneim sparked a row between the parties. Two suicide bombings in Jerusalem, on Jul. 30 and Sep. 4, further marked the decline in trust between the sides, and sparked a push by Washington to pressure the Palestinian Authority to crack down on the Islamic Resistance Movement (called ‘Hamas’ in its Arabic acronym).

This month, as Palestinian President Yasser Arafat ordered arrests of Hamas activists and closure of the movement’s welfare offices, both Israel and the United States have declared a new impetus to move ahead.

Abbas pledged Monday that the Palestinians would “cooperate in the fight against violence and terror,” and promised good faith in the talks, arguing, “We are determined to go forward and not backward.” Israel responded last week by releasing 17 million dollars in funds withheld from the Palestinians since the suicide bombings, and allowing thousands of Palestinians to cross the border to work in Israel.

Yet Israel has not been forced to halt the settlements, nor has it faced U.S. pressure to complete the long-delayed redeployment of its troops from the West Bank. Addressing the U.N. General Assembly Monday, Levy in fact added new conditions for the Palestinians to meet, including a “binding code of conduct” that would include the rejection of violence and the “cessation of incitement of the call to violence and jihad”.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amre Moussa underscored how tense the entire process was when he spoke at the United Nations Monday. “Confidence was lost, credibility was shaken and the peace process lost momentum” this year, Moussa said. “For this, and the current serious situation, the Israeli government policy is to blame.”

Arab diplomats also have threatened to boycott an upcoming economic summit meeting in Doha, which is to include Israel, as long as the impasse lasts. Albright urged regional governments to attend the Doha summit, adding that she hoped Arab states would see the Monday talks as enough of a step forward to encourage them to meet with Israel.