The Palestinian Authority as well as all Arab states will strongly reject Israeli efforts to introduce amendments and changes to the Arab Peace Plan also known as the Saudi initiative Palestinian and Arab sources said Wednesday.
Palestinian government officials told PIC that calls by Israel for amending the plan “will not even be considered.”
“I can tell you that the Saudi Plan will not be presented for discussion at the upcoming Arab summit conference in Riyadh. The conference will reassert the plan and that is all” said Ahmed Yousuf advisor to mandated Prime Minister Ismael Haniya.
Yousuf who is on a visit to Europe said it was up to Israel to accept or reject the plan which he said represented the “Arab consensus.”
On Wednesday the PA reaffirmed its firm opposition to “any changes” to the Arab initiative.
Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said the Palestinian leadership would stand firmly against the introduction of any changes or even modifications to the plan stressing that anything less than total Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories including first and foremost East Jerusalem would be utterly unacceptable to the Palestinians and Arabs.
The Arab Peace Initiative adopted by Arab leaders during the Beirut Summit Conference in 2000 called for full Israeli withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied by Israel in 1967 including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights and a just settlement for the Palestinian refugee problem pursuant UN resolution 194. And in return the Arab world promised normal relations with Israel.
Israel consistently rejected the plan calling it “unrealistic and impractical.” However in recent weeks Israeli officials including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzibi Livni indicated that Israel would be willing to discuss the plan.
Last week Livni said Israel would not accept the plan “as it is” because it contained clauses demanding the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and villages from which they were uprooted and expelled by the Israeli army in 1948.
On Wednesday Saudi Arabia confirmed that the March 28-29 Summit in Riyadh would reassert the Arab Peace plan.
“Arab states should unify their positions and especially as regard giving new impetus to the Arab peace initiative” King Abdullah was quoted as saying by the Saudi News Agency.
Earlier Saudi Arabia lambasted Israel for trying to dilute the Arab peace plan by demanding changes to it which would eviscerate it of substance.
On Wednesday the foreign ministers of Jordan Egypt Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates held discussion in Amman the Jordanian capital and reaffirmed their commitment to the plan.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah al Khatib said there was an Arab consensus to adopt the plan during the upcoming summit in Riyadh.
“This is an Arab Peace initiative toward the resolution of the Palestinian problem. The initiative enjoys international acceptance and is compatible with the rule of international law.”
PR maneuvers
Most Palestinian officials however seem to be convinced that Israel is not sincere at all about the Arab peace plan and is only trying to give a different impression for public relations considerations.
“I don’t believe at all that Israel is sincere about the Arab plan. The Olmert government is only making maneuvers aimed at eviscerating the plan of its content” said MP Mustafa Barghouthi.
He told PIC that Israel rejected the backbone of the Plan namely the key clause pertaining to total withdrawal from the occupied territories.
“They are simply not willing to give up the spoils of the 1967 war even in return for total peace and complete normalization with the Arabs.”
Asked if the Arab states might cave in to possible American bullying and agree to introduce certain changes to the plan that would make the Israeli withdrawal less than complete Barghouthi said He didn’t think so.
“Even if the Arabs accepted this we wouldn’t accept it. This is our cause our future and the totality of the withdrawal is a sacred thing.”
Israel flying in the face of international law and the rest of the international community considers the West Bank East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip “disputed” rather than “occupied” territories.
And since 1967 Israel has built dozens of Jewish-only colonies on occupied Arab land thus creating one of the most insurmountable obstacles impeding the realization of a peaceful settlement to the Israeli- Palestinian strife.
