articolo del monde diplomatique

["Francesca Nardi" <f.nardi@iai.it>]

A seguito della precedente email Le invio l'articolo apparso sul Monde
Diplomatique di Aprile 2002.
RingraziandoLa ancora per l'attenzione e l'interesse,
Janiki Cingoli

Francesca Nardi
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Via Angelo Brunetti 9,
00186 Roma
tel.06 3224360
fax. 06 3224363
f.nardi@iai.it
cipmo@iai.it




AN ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE COALITION
THE DO-IT-OURSEVES SOLUTION
Monde Diplomatique April 2nd 2002

For the founders of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Coalition, there is a
possible way out of the present murderous impasse in the region: a return
to the agreement drawn up at Taba in January 2001. Two of those who drew it
up, one Israeli and one Palestinian, propose an alternative way forward.
by YASSER ABED RABBO and YOSSI BEILIN *

Israelis ask why the Palestinian intifada broke out just when it seemed we
were so close to an agreement. Palestinians ask why Israel responded with
such inordinate military power to the uprising, using planes and tanks
against a population largely subject to Israel's security control. Each
side finds arguments to justify the escalation of the situation; each side
explains to its own people, and to others, that "we can't let this incident
go without a response" and then escalates the situation by using means
that, until then, had not yet been used. The adversaries are like two
wrestlers locked in a deadly embrace who continue to inflict wounds on one
another, with no benefit to either. If, in two years time, you show film of
the present behaviour of both sides, they will not believe they were
parties to such stupidity.
This dance of death must be ended now. The hope of returning to talks
through informal channels is becoming more and more remote. Israelis are
not allowed to enter the areas of the Palestinian Authority except with
special authorisation, which the defence establishment refuses to give.
Palestinians are prevented from reaching Israel, and their elected
representatives have lost their right to freedom of movement. The only way
Israelis and Palestinians can meet is at checkpoints or abroad. It is
becoming harder and harder for Palestinians to travel abroad, because they
cannot get permits from the Israelis.
A number of people on both sides are refusing to accept this progressive
deterioration, which is leading to tragedy. Now that the other channels of
communication have been blocked, we think it imperative to open an informal
channel which will guarantee ongoing communication, even at the most
difficult times, and allow continuous response to the debate: a channel
that will restore mutual trust and prove to each side that there is a
partner on the other side and a common denominator that will enable a peace
agreement to be signed.
Soon after Ariel Sharon was elected prime minister in February 2001, a
peace coalition was set up in Israel to counterbalance the national unity
government. The coalition was based on three main political groups: Meretz;
Labour party Knesset Members who opposed their party joining the national
unity government; and a group of new immigrants from the former Soviet
Union. There were also many public figures and non-parliamentary peace
movements.
In July 2001 there was a meeting between representatives of the peace
coalition and a similar group on the Palestinian side - cabinet ministers,
members of the Palestinian Legislative Council and intellectuals. After
that meeting there was a joint declaration expressing the parties' mutual
understanding of each other's distress, emphasising the immediate need for
a cessation of violence and a return to negotiations, and referring to the
outlines of a final status agreement emanating from the Camp David summit
(July 2000), the Clinton plan (December 2000) and the Taba meeting (January
2001).
The leading figures on both sides have been negotiators. They have sat
opposite each other and made attempts - as yet unsuccessful - to sign a
permanent agreement between them; they believe that, instead of blaming one
another for the exacerbation of the situation, it would be better, and even
possible, to return to the negotiating table and reach an agreement that
would bridge the remaining gaps and win the support of the Palestinian and
Israeli populations. Both peoples are weary of the continuing, mutual
attrition.
In recent months the international press has published joint articles by
leaders of the coalition from both sides; we have dispatched joint
delegations to countries around the world explaining our positions to
national leaders, to legislative authorities, to the media; and we have
published calls for a return to the negotiating table.
One of the highlights of our joint actions took place during a meeting in
South Africa with President Thabo Mbeki this January. It is now hard to
meet on Israeli or Palestinian territory, but both sides were given the
chance here to hold an open, ongoing dialogue, learn from South Africa's
reconciliation experiences and agree on future actions. Mbeki and 10
members of his government were present throughout the three-day meeting,
and played a pivotal role by explaining what had happened in South Africa;
they tried to find ways to implement in the Middle East conflict the
lessons they had learned at home.
For example, the South Africans concluded that it was in the interests of
each side to strengthen the other as much as possible, even though their
instinct might be to weaken the opposition.
On 14 January, shortly after our return from South Africa, we decided to
set up, as a precedent, a joint organisational framework: the
Israeli-Palestinian Peace Coalition. The intention, from now on, is to
strengthen the ties between the parties, issue joint responses to the
media, meet statesmen and politicians who come to the region and who have
until now accepted separate meetings with Israelis and Palestinians. This
spontaneous cooperation will be transformed - for the first time since the
law preventing Israelis from meeting with representatives of the PLO was
cancelled in 1988 - into ongoing coordination between representatives of
both sides; they will run the organisation as a full-time job, and put
proposals for action to their political leaders. The new style of operation
will be based on the joint perspective of both sides.
The main message of our first meeting was a call for a third party to
intervene in the conflict and help Israelis and Palestinians return to the
negotiating table. We are talking about the United States and Europe, and
others too: monitors, observers, mediators, facilitators (although this
seems increasingly distant). We have not retracted our call for help from
the world, but we felt a need to create a third party for ourselves: the
Israeli-Palestinian Peace Coalition is intended to be a do-it yourself
third party. The world may be prepared to say "let them bleed", but we will
never say that. We call on the leaders of both sides to end their deadly
embrace, return to negotiations, take the violence out of the joint
process, remove preconditions for returning to negotiations and take full
advantage of existing agreements with respect to a ceasefire (the Tenet
document), a restoration of mutual trust (the Mitchell report) and a final
status agreement (the Clinton plan and the conversations that preceded and
resulted from the plan).
It is not easy to maintain an Israeli-Palestinian Peace Coalition. Though
we have substantial support from both sides, criticism is intense. People
who are prepared to meet and conduct a dialogue while violence continues
and innocent people are being killed on both sides are always criticised,
accused of playing into the enemies' hands. This is why we need
international legitimacy, extensive recognition and help from those who
believe in peace.

* Respectively the Palestinian minister of information and culture and the
former Israeli minister of justice
Mr. Yasser Abed Rabbo is the Palestinian minister of information and
culture and Mr. Yossi Beilin is a former Israeli minister of justice.