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Haaretz, 15/10/2003
Tanzim pushes for popular support of Geneva Accord
Akiva Eldar
Key members of the Fatah-affiliated Tanzim organization who
participated in drafting the Geneva Accord yesterday opened a public
relations campaign about the document in Palestinian refugee camps in an
effort to muster support for the initiative.
They told their Israeli counterparts that in general, the response they
encountered was positive.
The Palestinian participants reiterated their commitment to the document,
which does not mention the right of return or its realization. However,
they also stressed that no Palestinian will ever publicly renounce the
dream of return, just as they do not demand that any Israeli publicly
renounce his right to return to Hebron.
In private conversations with Israeli delegates to the talks, the
Palestinians estimated that no more than 20,000 refugees would want to
return to Israel. The agreement states that the maximum number that will
be allowed to resettle in Israel will be the average number that
third-party countries such as Canada and Australia agree to absorb.
In the section on the Old City of Jerusalem, the document limits
Palestinian sovereignty over the Temple Mount, or Haram al-Sharif, by
stating that in light of the sanctity of the site, and its religious and
cultural significance to the Jewish people, there will be no
archaeological digs or construction without the consent of both sides. An
international force stationed permanently at the site would be responsible
for supervising implementation of this article. This clause is meant to
put an end to the years of mutual accusations of unilateral construction
and excavation on the Mount.
The article adds that in light of the site's universal significance,
visitors will be allowed to enter without discrimination, subject to
prayer and security arrangements.
The Mount would be transferred to the Palestinians only 30 months after
the agreement is signed. This waiting period is apparently meant to enable
both sides to examine the sincerity of the other's implementation efforts
and to encourage the Palestinians to fulfill their other commitments (such
as fighting terrorism) in order to ensure that the site will indeed be
transferred to them.
According to the agreement, the Muslim, Armenian and Christian quarters of
the Old City would be Palestinian, while the Jewish quarter would remain
Israeli. There would be special arrangements to allow Israelis to pass
through the Armenian quarter on their way to the Jewish quarter. The
entire Old City would be open: The borders between the quarters would be
marked, but they would not be separated by physical barriers. In other
neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, Jewish and Arab areas would be separated
by physical barriers, but the two parties would consider removing them
after three years.
In an emergency, either side would be able to suspend the above
arrangements and physically close off the quarter(s) under its control (with
the exception of the Armenian quarter) for one week.
Law and order in the Old City would be maintained by a special
international force that would include Israeli and Palestinian policemen.
The Palestinians would have sovereignty over Damascus Gate, Lions Gate and
New Gate, while Israel would retain sovereignty over Dung Gate and Zion
Gate. Jaffa Gate would also be under Palestinian sovereignty, but Israel
would operate the border crossing - an arrangement meant to ensure an
orderly flow of traffic in both directions.
Israel would manage and provide security for the Jewish cemetery on the
Mount of Olives, and would also be responsible for security on the main
road leading from Jaffa Gate to Zion Gate and from there to the Mount of
Olives.
Visas would be needed to cross from Israeli to Palestinian Jerusalem or
vice versa. Both the Israeli and the Palestinian sections of the city
would be territorially contiguous, without enclaves.
The American administration yesterday distanced itself from the Geneva
Accord, with State Department spokesman Richard Boucher stressing that the
U.S. is committed to the road map and that it is the only plan the U.S.
currently intends to promote.
Speaking at his daily press briefing, Boucher said that the Geneva talks
were a private initiative in which the U.S. was not involved. The U.S., he
said, remains committed to pursuing President George W. Bush's vision of
two states for two peoples, but it believes that the proper way to do this
is via the road map.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat called the document a bid to
achieve Middle East peace but noted that it had no official standing. He
did not comment on the specifics of the document.
Senior government officials continued to lambaste Yossi Beilin and his
team for conducting the negotiations at all. Deputy Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert said the talks were at once "very grave and pathetic" and
that concessions over holy sites in Jerusalem were "shameful."
"It is pathetic, in that the public cast aside these people, threw
some of them out of positions of influence in Israel, and they presume to
do these things," he said. "It is grave, because they knowingly
want to act as levers in the hands of foreign powers in order to put
pressure on Israel ... This impersonation, this pretense, that they are
signing a supposed agreement with a foreign entity is something for which
I cannot find a precedent in the modern history of democratic nations."
Former prime minister Ehud Barak also attacked the document, saying it was
unfortunate that the Labor Party had permitted some of its members to
formulate such a "delusional" peace plan.
"This is a fictitious and slightly peculiar agreement ... that
clearly harms the interests of the State of Israel," Barak told
Israel Radio on Monday.
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