MIFTAH
Thursday, 28 March. 2024
 
Your Key to Palestine
The Palestinian Initiatives for The Promotoion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
 
 
 

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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been on a recent tour of the Middle East, in an attempt to keep both parties (Palestinians and Israelis) in line ahead of Israel’s unilateral disengagement plan and the recent upsurge in violence. Secretary Rice, began her tour of the Middle East by meeting the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at his ranch in the Negev Desert, in what was a semi-formal meeting. Two days later, Dr. Rice visited the Palestinian National Authority President in Ramallah, to discuss the imminent, yet very vague Israeli unilateral disengagement from Gaza set to take place on August 1. The visit, by Dr. Rice seemed to be more symbolic than substantive; her visit, which was the third to the region in the last five months, was a mere show of renewed initiative through shuttle diplomacy and sadly not much more. Even though US engagement in the conflict or peace process is always welcomed and appreciated by both parties, many vital questions concerning the unilateral disengagement and post disengagement period still remain unanswered.

With absolute certainty one can say that Israel will go through with its proposed unilateral disengagement plan on their own timetable, as it suits Israeli interests, and promotes their ability to continuously alter the ‘facts on the ground’ to their advantage. The Israeli government has succeeded par excellence in its effort to promote the disengagement plan to the international community, as well as to the international media; successfully consuming the attention of both. The degree to which this disengagement plan has no role within the Road Map and the peace process is made apparent by the utter completeness by which the PNA has been kept outside the process. With the proposed disengagement set for August 1, the PNA has now exactly one month to have some very pivotal questions answered, that it has been consistently seeking answers to since the resumption of dialogue between the two parties. The hope is that these answers would allow this pullout to be as smooth and successful as possible for the residents of Gaza, with the least amount of bloodshed, yet the answers are not forthcoming.

In the immediate press conference that followed Dr. Rices’ meetings with both the Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Korei and President Mahmoud Abbas, Secretary Rice spoke of coordination, cooperation and negotiations yet none of these characterize this process. If coordination, cooperation, and negotiation were in fact occurring than the reservations voiced by Palestinians would be seriously considered and grappled with by Israel. In reality Palestinians have made their desires known to Israel, for example the need for Israel to relinquish control over Gaza’s many border crossings and allow the Gaza port and airport to be reopened, while Israel responds not with the desire to cooperate but with arrogance and complete disregard, cloaking their desire to pursue unilateral actions with the typical ‘security concern rhetoric’. To her credit, Secretary Rice did stress that free movement for the Palestinians was vital. "That means when the Israelis withdraw from Gaza, they cannot be sealed or isolated as an area, with the Palestinian people closed in after that withdrawal," Rice said. Given, Israel’s tendency to ignore requests of this sort, realization of this will have to be ensured. The cooperation and coordination of which Secretary Rice spoke is sadly non-existent, the most recent example being the failed meeting between Palestinian Interior Minister and the Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, where further requests for information were met with a disappointing filibuster once again.

President Mahmoud Abbas at the press conference, showing his genuine initiative and yearning for peace, with frankness and frustration asked the most basic of questions concerning the pull-out leaving journalists and viewers flabbergasted. "We need information! How will the disengagement take place, when, where will it begin, what is the fate of the border crossings, what is the fate of the Palestinian airport," Abbas told Reuters in an interview. "We're not getting any answers."

At face value, Rice’s statements might seem encouraging and pragmatic. However, what needs to be remembered is that Israel’s pullout from Gaza is neither a coordinated move with the Palestinians nor is it complementary to the US proposed ‘Road Map.’ The Gaza disengagement plan is rather a smokescreen or PR plot, to divert international attention from Israel’s continued land acquisition policy, pursued with concerns to the status of Jerusalem, and the West Bank. While the world at large focuses on the ‘Gaza disengagement,’ Israel is continuing its theft of Palestinian land, home demolitions at frightening rate, as well the continued construction of the ‘Segregation Wall,’ ultimately aiming to ethnically cleanse and simultaneously Judaize east Jerusalem and the West Bank. If this were not the Israeli agenda surely the questions Abbas has posed would be answerable in the interests of forging a working long-term relationship, but by avoiding the answers Israel succeeds in defining the issues and manipulating the agenda to its advantage, as is the historical trend.

The fundamental learning point is that requests are simply not enough. How will the US administration ensure and guarantee that Israel complies with what the US has pledged and with what the Road Map as well as International Law and legitimacy calls for?

Even though the Gaza disengagement is being touted as a first step; it is a show. Political cooperation, coordination, and negotiation are needed, but they are not happening. And they must place throughout any processes embarked upon between Israel and Palestine in order for any genuine peace to prevail.

 
 
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