Scoop Link: The Palestine Papers Day 2

Tuesday, 25 January 2011, 11:09 am
Press Release: Scoop Link

The Palestine Papers reveal that Kadima's leaders refused to compromise on even the most basic issues.

Tzipi Livni, Israel's main opposition leader, has sought in recent months to position herself and her Kadima party as the voice of moderation in Israeli politics - the "pro-peace" alternative to the country's current hard-right governing coalition.

She frequently accuses Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, of choosing short-term political expediency over a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA).

"When Netanyahu needs to choose between a coalition and peace, he prefers his political survival," she said in a December interview with Israel's Army Radio. "There is a political majority, a national consensus and a public majority for a [peace] agreement and Netanyahu's political decision indicates his intentions."

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Israel refuses to take responsibility for creating the Palestinian refugee crisis.

It’s a core issue of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that dates back to Israel’s creation: the forced expulsion in 1948 of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes by Israeli soldiers and Jewish paramilitary groups. But The Palestine Papers show that far from resolving this thorny problem, Israeli negotiators refused to even acknowledge their responsibility in creating the world's largest refugee population.

Some of the most contentious meetings between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators involved the "refugee file". On several occasions, Israeli officials insisted that negotiators should move forward and forget "the past", even as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians continue to languish in refugee camps under abysmal conditions. As talks on refugees progressed during the Annapolis process, Israeli negotiators were aided by the US and French officials, who took their side on the issue of responsibility.

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In 2007, Israel's then-foreign minister proclaimed herself "against law, international law in particular".

It was business as usual at the United Nations in New York on November 13, 2007 when yet another discussion took place in the General Assembly about Israel's dealings with the Palestinians.

The UN Special Observer for Palestine cited from a report in which Israel was portrayed as an "extraordinary violator of human rights" and called upon the international community to hold Israel accountable.

On the same day, halfway around the world, Tzipi Livni, the then-Israeli foreign minister, told Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Ahmed Qurei, the former PA prime minister, that she is "against international law".

Palestinian Authority proposed that only a handful of the nearly six million Palestinian refugees be allowed to return.

At the Bourj el Barajneh refugee camp in southern Beirut, a centre for the elderly serves as an oasis from the overcrowded, filthy conditions outside its metal doors.

On a recent Thursday morning, a group of men and women in their 60s and 70s gathered around a table to colour and draw pictures, while others solved crossword puzzles. One woman sitting in the corner focused intently as she embroidered a traditional Palestinian dress. The Active Ageing House in the refugee camp is a place where they can pass time, socialise and share meals.

They are known as the "Children of the Nakba" - a generation of Palestinians that witnessed, and survived, the forced expulsion and violence in 1948 committed by Zionist paramilitaries on behalf of the nascent state of Israel.

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Obama pressured PA negotiators to restart talks and refused to honour one of the Bush administrations key promimses.

Jerusalem – It was all smiles in late September 2009, when Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, shook hands at the United Nations. Barack Obama, the US president, brought the men together for a trilateral meeting that he hailed as a chance to revive stalled talks between the two sides, an opportunity to "move forward"

In reality, there was little reason for optimism, and Obama knew it: Less than a week before the handshake, Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator of the Palestinian Authority (PA), told a senior Obama adviser that a trilateral meeting would be ruinous for the PA. "It’s like having a gun to my head, damned if you do and damned if you don’t," Erekat told David Hale.

Erekat also warned that Obama’s failure to secure a complete settlement freeze from the Israeli government would damage the credibility of the young administration, a suggestion Hale abruptly dismissed.

Israeli negotiators, including Tzipi Livni, proposed "swapping" some of Israel's Arab villages into a Palestinian state.

Baqa al-Gharbiyya, Israel – This sleepy agricultural village, an hour’s drive northeast from Tel Aviv, feels worlds apart from Israel’s commercial capital. Garbage lines many of the narrow, rutted streets, symptoms of the lower level of government funding bestowed upon the town; unemployed men mill about, complaining that Israel’s policies have hurt the local economy.

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s hard-right foreign minister, has proposed annexing this and other Arab villages to a future Palestinian state. Their inhabitants would be stripped of their Israeli citizenship unless they were willing to leave their land and swear a “loyalty oath” to the state.

His plan is deeply unpopular here and in nearby villages. Despite the discrimination most Arabs experience in Israel, they say few will renounce their Israeli citizenship to become Palestinians.

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ENDS

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