Road Map to Nowhere?
Uma visão
READING BETWEEN THE LINES
[DECONSTRUCTING AND DECODING OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS]
With the war in Iraq over and a new prime minister in charge of the Palestinian Authority, the Bush administration unveiled its Middle East peace plan last April. The road map—drafted by the United States in consultation with Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations—seeks to avoid the pitfalls of the failed 1993 Oslo accords by making Palestinian statehood an explicit goal and by authorizing international observers to monitor compliance. But to make the initiative acceptable to Israel, the authors of the five-page document sidestepped many issues critical to the Palestinians, creating a road map as vague as it is ambitious.
- Daoud Kuttab (July/August 2003)
A PERFORMANCE-BASED ROADMAP TO A PERMANENT TWO-STATE SOLUTION TO THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT
The following is a performance-based and goal-driven roadmap, with clear phases, timelines, target dates, and benchmarks aiming at progress through reciprocal steps by the two parties in the political, security, economic, humanitarian, and institution-building fields, under the auspices of the Quartet [the United States, European Union, United Nations, and Russia]. The destination is a final and comprehensive settlement of the Israel-Palestinian conflict by 2005....
A two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only be achieved through an end to violence and terrorism....The plan establishes a realistic timeline for implementation. However, as a performance-based plan, progress will require and depend upon the good faith efforts of the parties, and their compliance with each of the obligations outlined below....
Having sketched out the broad goals of the road map, the document moves on to the more contentious question of the borders of a future Palestinian state. The road map is deliberately ambiguous: The reference to U.N. Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 242 and the Saudi peace plan—which call upon Israel to withdraw from territories occupied during the 1967 war—is an indirect way of delineating the borders without making the road map binding on Israel, yet at the same time making Palestinians feel good that the 1967 borders are mentioned.
A settlement, negotiated between the parties, will result in the emergence of an independent, democratic, and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbors. The settlement will resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and end the occupation that began in 1967, based on the foundations of the Madrid Conference, the principle of land for peace, unscrs 242, 338 and 1397, agreements previously reached by the parties, and the initiative of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah—–endorsed by the Beirut Arab League Summit—calling for acceptance of Israel as a neighbor living in peace and security, in the context of a comprehensive settlement....
In Phase I...Israel takes all necessary steps to help normalize Palestinian life. Israel withdraws from Palestinian areas occupied from September 28, 2000 and the two sides restore the status quo that existed at that time....
• Israeli leadership issues unequivocal statement affirming its commitment to the two-state vision of an independent, viable, sovereign Palestinian state living in peace and security alongside Israel, as expressed by President Bush, and calling for an immediate end to violence against Palestinians everywhere. All official Israeli institutions end incitement against Palestinians....
Security. . .
• Rebuilt and refocused Palestinian Authority security apparatus begins sustained, targeted, and effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. This includes commencing confiscation of illegal weapons and consolidation of security authority, free of association with terror and corruption....
Settlements
• GOI [Government of Israel] immediately dismantles settlement outposts erected since March 2001.
Phase II. . .
In the second phase, efforts are focused on the option of creating an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders and attributes of sovereignty, based on the new constitution, as a way station to a permanent status settlement. As has been noted, this goal can be achieved when the Palestinian people have a leadership acting decisively against terror, willing and able to build a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty. With such a leadership, reformed civil institutions and security structures, the Palestinians will have the active support of the Quartet and the broader international community in establishing an independent, viable, state....
Phase III. . .
• Parties reach final and comprehensive permanent status agreement that ends the Israel-Palestinian conflict in 2005, through a settlement negotiated between the parties based on UNSCR 242, 338, and 1397, that ends the occupation that began in 1967, and includes an agreed, just, fair, and realistic solution to the refugee issue, and a negotiated resolution on the status of Jerusalem that takes into account the political and religious concerns of both sides....
• Arab state acceptance of full normal relations with Israel and security for all the states of the region in the context of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.
Daoud Kuttab is founder and director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Quds University in Ramallah.
READING BETWEEN THE LINES
[DECONSTRUCTING AND DECODING OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS]
With the war in Iraq over and a new prime minister in charge of the Palestinian Authority, the Bush administration unveiled its Middle East peace plan last April. The road map—drafted by the United States in consultation with Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations—seeks to avoid the pitfalls of the failed 1993 Oslo accords by making Palestinian statehood an explicit goal and by authorizing international observers to monitor compliance. But to make the initiative acceptable to Israel, the authors of the five-page document sidestepped many issues critical to the Palestinians, creating a road map as vague as it is ambitious.
- Daoud Kuttab (July/August 2003)
A PERFORMANCE-BASED ROADMAP TO A PERMANENT TWO-STATE SOLUTION TO THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT
The following is a performance-based and goal-driven roadmap, with clear phases, timelines, target dates, and benchmarks aiming at progress through reciprocal steps by the two parties in the political, security, economic, humanitarian, and institution-building fields, under the auspices of the Quartet [the United States, European Union, United Nations, and Russia]. The destination is a final and comprehensive settlement of the Israel-Palestinian conflict by 2005....
A two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only be achieved through an end to violence and terrorism....The plan establishes a realistic timeline for implementation. However, as a performance-based plan, progress will require and depend upon the good faith efforts of the parties, and their compliance with each of the obligations outlined below....
Having sketched out the broad goals of the road map, the document moves on to the more contentious question of the borders of a future Palestinian state. The road map is deliberately ambiguous: The reference to U.N. Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 242 and the Saudi peace plan—which call upon Israel to withdraw from territories occupied during the 1967 war—is an indirect way of delineating the borders without making the road map binding on Israel, yet at the same time making Palestinians feel good that the 1967 borders are mentioned.
A settlement, negotiated between the parties, will result in the emergence of an independent, democratic, and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbors. The settlement will resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and end the occupation that began in 1967, based on the foundations of the Madrid Conference, the principle of land for peace, unscrs 242, 338 and 1397, agreements previously reached by the parties, and the initiative of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah—–endorsed by the Beirut Arab League Summit—calling for acceptance of Israel as a neighbor living in peace and security, in the context of a comprehensive settlement....
In Phase I...Israel takes all necessary steps to help normalize Palestinian life. Israel withdraws from Palestinian areas occupied from September 28, 2000 and the two sides restore the status quo that existed at that time....
• Israeli leadership issues unequivocal statement affirming its commitment to the two-state vision of an independent, viable, sovereign Palestinian state living in peace and security alongside Israel, as expressed by President Bush, and calling for an immediate end to violence against Palestinians everywhere. All official Israeli institutions end incitement against Palestinians....
Security. . .
• Rebuilt and refocused Palestinian Authority security apparatus begins sustained, targeted, and effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. This includes commencing confiscation of illegal weapons and consolidation of security authority, free of association with terror and corruption....
Settlements
• GOI [Government of Israel] immediately dismantles settlement outposts erected since March 2001.
Phase II. . .
In the second phase, efforts are focused on the option of creating an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders and attributes of sovereignty, based on the new constitution, as a way station to a permanent status settlement. As has been noted, this goal can be achieved when the Palestinian people have a leadership acting decisively against terror, willing and able to build a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty. With such a leadership, reformed civil institutions and security structures, the Palestinians will have the active support of the Quartet and the broader international community in establishing an independent, viable, state....
Phase III. . .
• Parties reach final and comprehensive permanent status agreement that ends the Israel-Palestinian conflict in 2005, through a settlement negotiated between the parties based on UNSCR 242, 338, and 1397, that ends the occupation that began in 1967, and includes an agreed, just, fair, and realistic solution to the refugee issue, and a negotiated resolution on the status of Jerusalem that takes into account the political and religious concerns of both sides....
• Arab state acceptance of full normal relations with Israel and security for all the states of the region in the context of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.
Daoud Kuttab is founder and director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Quds University in Ramallah.
publicado por MP às 23:26
