Quite frankly, the program put forth by the government of the Palestinian Authority, detailed by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in a document entitled “Palestine: Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State”, for the next two years is the only program that preserves the two states, undermines the occupation and ruptures its backbone by building the institutions of the de facto state. More than this, in fact, as such a program is the key to repairing relations between the Arabs and the Palestinians, relations that have been eroded over the years, either out of frustration with the Palestinians or out of the fear of bearing responsibility for their cause, including through granting refugees citizenship or because of ongoing Palestinian disputes. This program is not the Palestinian response to Israeli procedures, but rather the Palestinian initiative to impose a reality in the face of Israeli procedures that persist in violating international law and in continuing to build settlements, or those that use deception against the two-state solution to elude the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Quite simply, the Palestinians are for the first time engaged in the initiative of building Palestinian capabilities, Palestinian institutions, the Palestinian state and the bases of independence from relying on monetary aid. And quite frankly, the international community and countries in the region – Arab countries in particular – may find that supporting this initiative and this document is in their interest as well, not only in that of the Palestinians and that of resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The first opportunity to show international support will be at the session held by the United Nations General Assembly this month, especially as US President Barack Obama will be placing the Palestinian-Israeli issue at the top of his list of priorities. The Europeans in particular are calling for this practical document to build Palestinian institutions to be turned into a political document which they would support and promote without submitting to extremist right-wing pressures such as what was put forth by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who attacked Fayyad’s document and promised to respond if it is implemented. Russia is calling for working with the Europeans to exert serious political pressures on Israel in order to adopt the strategy of having the international community impose a solution on both sides, particularly because Russia is likely to host the international conference it had sought after. Indeed, it is time to awaken the common conscience and the ethical dimension of the international community, and particularly the Middle East Quartet, and the time has come to turn it into a serious and determined policy. As for the responsibility of the Arabs, it has various and numerous aspects, especially that this session of the General Assembly and the Climate Change Summit may bring winds that blow against the interest of the Palestinians. It would thus perhaps be appropriate for Libyan Leader Colonel Muammar Qaddafi to read the document of the Palestinian Authority government’s program before squandering it over the remains of the Isratine proposal. It would also be appropriate for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to decide to come to New York to participate in the Climate Change Summit and in the General Assembly, because he is the President of the Non-Aligned Movement and as such plays a very important role in numerous issues, especially the Palestinian one, as he can promote the program of “completing the building of the state despite the occupation to hasten its end”, as Salam Fayyad says. It would perhaps also be useful for Lebanese President Michel Suleiman to read between the lines of the document to examine whether it contains any methods of addressing the Lebanese obsession of granting the Palestinians citizenship. Jordanian Monarch King Abdullah II will certainly find in the document elements to invalidate claims and attempts to promote the idea of “Jordan as the alternative homeland” for the Palestinians. And certainly Saudi Monarch King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz will also find in the program everything that deserves all kinds of support because it truly is a road map to ending Israeli occupation and to repairing relations between the Arabs and the Palestinians.
Whatever the background of Palestinian reactions to the program, to its form rather than its content, or for personal reasons against the Palestinian Prime Minister, may be, the issue in the end is that there is a detailed and rational program, that of ending the occupation through building institutions in order to impose the Palestinian state over two years as a de facto situation in spite of the occupation, instead of waiting for Israeli political deception that aims at maintaining it. It is the program of forging a partnership between the government and citizens to ensure the sustainability of institutions “to establish Palestine as an independent, democratic, progressive, and modern Arab state, with full sovereignty over its territory in the West Bank and Gaza, on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital”, as Salam Fayyad writes in his foreword to the document, adding that “Palestine will be a peace-loving state that rejects violence, commits to co-existence with its neighbors, and builds bridges of cooperation with the international community” to become “an anchor for stability in this region”.
This is a Palestinian initiative to bear Palestinian responsibility, and that is a bold move on the part of the Palestinians, through a clear and detailed vision, to show that they are serious in taking on the task of building the state themselves, starting with Arab and international assistance and ending with self-reliance through state institutions. It is the project of proving the Palestinians’ ability to build and respect themselves and to inform everyone that something new has happened in Palestinian thought, vision and determination.
Traditionally, the Arabs in their private meetings have often discussed the Palestinians at great lengths in a language reflecting resentment towards Palestinian leaderships. Thus they would often level accusations of constant failure at the Palestinians and make them bear responsibility for the poor state of the Arabs. Today brings the opportunity for the Arabs to say that the Palestinians have become serious and can be supported and made to bear responsibility for success, not failure.
Of course, what we speak of here is the political, financial and economic support necessary for building the institutions of the state of Palestine, support which must flow in an organized manner to the institutions of the Palestinian Authority. However, we also speak of repairing the relationship between the Arabs and the Palestinians, as well as of lifting the spirits of Palestinians on Palestinian soil.
For example, Salam Fayyad’s plan of building an international airport in the West Bank, one in which Air Force One would land, carrying Barack Obama to the state of Palestine, is one of raising the spirits of Palestinians and of strengthening imposing Palestine as a de facto state. Thus it is necessary for Arab countries to extend their assistance and to lift the restrictions imposed on their citizens, so that they may visit Palestine as it builds its institutions, walk in the streets of Jerusalem, speak the Arabic language, stay at Palestinian hotels and eat at Palestinian restaurants. Such was the cry of Faisal Husseini: Come to Jerusalem to save it.
Moreover, the program of the Palestinian government contains what can alter and change much in the relationship some Arab countries have with the Palestinian issue. Indeed, building the state of Palestine as a de facto reality over two years means that the Palestinian Authority is putting forth a Palestinian initiative to guarantee that there will neither be “granting citizenship” to the Palestinians in Lebanon nor an “alternative homeland” for them in Jordan. Hence, supporting efforts to build the institutions of a de facto state is in the interest of the Arab countries that fear plans of granting citizenship and alternative homelands.
At the European level, EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Javier Solana supported the Palestinian Authority government’s program after meeting with the Palestinian Prime Minister this week, expressing the EU’s willingness to offer any assistance that would help to effectively implement it to support the Palestinian people and establish the state, and describing the program document as professional and full of creative ideas. Solana also said he hopes that important decisions will be taken regarding the Palestinian issue during and on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.
The envoy of the Middle East Quartet, which includes the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, for his part, is asked to reduce his semi-permanent absence from his duties and responsibilities. It is time for him to show more initiative and concern, and to grant clear and concrete support to promoting the Palestinian initiative, which has given a spirited and realistic framework to the peace process aimed at the two-state solution. Blair must play a leading role without any restraints to drive forward and gather international support for the Palestinian initiative, political and not just financial.
At the US level, regardless of what the successive and balanced steps taken by US diplomacy in the gradual approach it has adopted lead to, supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state agrees with the United States’ vision. The initiative which the Palestinians have taken by themselves is an ambitious plan that deserves backing and support, because the most important task it contains is that of achieving the project of the state, not just achieving the road map to the state. Indeed, George Mitchell made a mistake when he addressed the gradual approach as an exchange between Israel freezing illegal settlement-building and what the Arabs put forth in terms of normalization. This was Mitchell’s mistake, because the main idea was based on each of the parties concerned “depositing” what they are willing to offer with the US party, which would in the end put forth the details of the “deposit” when they are ready.
Now George Mitchell must intervene at the core of the aims of the negotiation process, so that Obama can define what the United States expects from both sides. Mitchell’s visit to Palestine and Israel next week will decide what will come out of the expected tripartite meeting at the United Nations, between the US President, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Attending the meeting gives the Palestinian side the opportunity to dominate the “agenda” of considerations regarding Palestine, most importantly the Palestinian Authority’s insistence on international and particularly US presence at the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations table.
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