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Alternative peace plan for Middle East ‘should be put
to the people’
THE Middle East peace juggernaut stalled before taking the first turn along the EU-backed road-map. But prominent European politicians came out recently in favour of an alternative peace plan. Despite the ongoing cycle of violence and political inertia, Israelis and Palestinians are embracing other avenues to peace – and the EU should aid them in their quest.
By Katleen Maes and Khaled Diab
February 2004
The stalling of the road-map and the upcoming presidential elections in the
United States have left the EU and other parties to the Middle East peace
process – the UN, Russia and Arab countries – frustrated and willing to explore
other options. One increasingly popular alternative is the unofficial ‘Geneva
initiative’, a complete final accord negotiated by private Israeli and
Palestinian citizens.
As leaders of this group, Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo – members of
former Israeli and Palestinian cabinets – went on a European tour recently to
promote the informal plan. Their visit elicited positive reactions from top
European politicians, including EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, External
Relations Commissioner Chris Patten and UK and Danish Foreign Ministers Jack
Straw and Per-Stig Moeller. “I think the Geneva initiative is perfectly
compatible with the road-map and, in fact, I think it may help not only to
implement it but to resolve its last phases,” Solana said after meeting the
veteran politicians.
In a 13 February resolution, the German parliament (Bundestag) welcomed the
Geneva initiative, which represents “a compromise line” and “completes” the
road-map by giving it a “concrete perspective”. Joschka Fischer, the German
foreign minister, had previously greeted it as “an encouraging signal of hope”.
In contrast to other plans on the table and the defunct ‘Oslo Process’, the
Geneva initiative takes as its starting point a final status agreement. By
tackling the sticking points of Jerusalem and the exact borders of a future
Palestinian state, the plan’s authors hope to overcome grass-roots scepticism.
The positive momentum the plan is creating, with 58 former global leaders and
eight US officials signing a letter of support, is a good start. But much more
is needed to prevent this umpteenth high-level effort from becoming yet another
dead letter. To that end, Patten indicated his willingness to put some EU money
behind the project. The commissioner touched upon the crux of the initiative’s
success – citizen involvement. In a region sceptical of every new plan and
disgruntled with its leadership, getting people directly involved might
instigate a major breakthrough.
Recognizing this, the text of the Geneva initiative was sent to every Israeli
household and was made available in the Palestinian media. Additionally, Ami
Ayalon, a former Israeli security chief, and Sari Nusseibeh, a senior
Palestinian academic, kicked off the People’s Voice project, which aims to
mobilize mass public support for a similar final status agreement. They have so
far gathered some 100,000 Israeli and 60,000 Palestinian signatures.
Israeli-Palestinian popular action has traditionally been limited to such
non-political gestures as joint expeditions to Antarctica and communal peace
villages.
These new initiatives finally deem Israelis and Palestinians to be sufficiently
mature politically to have a say in the shape of a future peace. The next step
would be to launch a broad public debate in which the various proposals could
be discussed and refined before being put to a referendum. The parties to the
Geneva initiative believe that the leadership should “put the plan directly to
their respective peoples”. The international community should mount “a
concerted political campaign, calling on Israelis and Palestinians to vote in
favour of the plan”, as Rob Malley of the International Crisis Group, the
Brussels-based think-tank behind the unofficial accords, put it in a recent
article.
While people on both sides long for peace – 82.8% support the cessation of
violence – an overwhelming 83.7% believe the peace process is dead, but roughly
40% support the Geneva initiative. However, the vast majority of those involved
– Israelis, Palestinians and third parties alike – anticipate that the terms of
any final settlement cannot differ much from what has already been negotiated.
What appears to be missing for a breakthrough is mutual trust, political
courage and respect for public opinion.
This article first appeared in the 19-25 February edition of the European Voice. © Copyright 2004 The
Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved.
ã2004 K. Diab. Unless otherwise stated, all the content on this website
is the copyright of Khaled Diab.