Wednesday
Feb042009
Israel-Palestine: The Failed Olmert Offer for a Settlement
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at 8:25
The Los Angeles Times, reporting on the Israeli election campaign, buries a significant revelation from the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot. It is nothing less than an initiative by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, launched last autumn, to get an agreement with the Palestinian Authority:
Under the proposal, Israel would relinquish any claim to the Gaza Strip, all but a small part of the West Bank and Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods, a hand-over that would uproot more than 60,000 Jewish settlers from the West Bank.
The Jewish part of Jerusalem and large suburban-style West Bank settlements near the city would remain in Israel's hands. In return for annexed West Bank land, the Palestinians would get a strip of the Negev desert adjacent to Gaza and a tunnel or overpass connecting Gaza and the West Bank. The shortest route linking the territories would run about 30 miles across southern Israel.
An international body representing Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the U.S. would administer religious sites in Jerusalem's Old City and holy basin to ensure access for Christian, Muslim and Jewish worshipers. Israel would retain formal sovereignty over those sites.
Palestinians who fled or were forced from Israel around the time of the Jewish state's founding in 1948 would forfeit their right to return, although Olmert offered to accept a limited number -- up to 50,000, according to Israel's Channel 10 television -- under a family reunification program.
The Palestinian Authority was sceptical of the proposal, as it was only verbal and left too many details unsettled. Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat says, "[PA President Mahmoud] Abbas told Olmert that we will not be part of an interim agreement. Either we agree on all issues, or no agreement at all."
Under the proposal, Israel would relinquish any claim to the Gaza Strip, all but a small part of the West Bank and Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods, a hand-over that would uproot more than 60,000 Jewish settlers from the West Bank.
The Jewish part of Jerusalem and large suburban-style West Bank settlements near the city would remain in Israel's hands. In return for annexed West Bank land, the Palestinians would get a strip of the Negev desert adjacent to Gaza and a tunnel or overpass connecting Gaza and the West Bank. The shortest route linking the territories would run about 30 miles across southern Israel.
An international body representing Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the U.S. would administer religious sites in Jerusalem's Old City and holy basin to ensure access for Christian, Muslim and Jewish worshipers. Israel would retain formal sovereignty over those sites.
Palestinians who fled or were forced from Israel around the time of the Jewish state's founding in 1948 would forfeit their right to return, although Olmert offered to accept a limited number -- up to 50,000, according to Israel's Channel 10 television -- under a family reunification program.
The Palestinian Authority was sceptical of the proposal, as it was only verbal and left too many details unsettled. Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat says, "[PA President Mahmoud] Abbas told Olmert that we will not be part of an interim agreement. Either we agree on all issues, or no agreement at all."