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Palestinian West Bank – Gaza Delegation: 1st Memorandum to US Secretary James Baker

Palestinian West Bank – Gaza Delegation

[First] Memorandum to U.S. Secretary James Baker

(Excerpts)

East-Jerusalem, 12 March 1991

The Honorable US. Secretary of State James Baker

The US Consulate General, Jerusalem

In the aftermath of the Gulf war, neither regional nor global politics can afford pro­crastination or evasion. As Palestinians who have been made to endure prolonged occupa­tion and dispossession, we are heartened by verbal commitments and statements of intent to solve the Palestine question on the basis of the principle of land for peace and the imple­mentation of all pertinent UN resolutions.

From our experience, however, resolve and application hold the fate of our whole na­tion in sway. We maintain that in spite of the painful and traumatic experience of the Gulf war, the time has come for embarking on de­cisive and future-oriented action rather than indulging in recrimination and retrospection.

It has thus become imperative that the ac­tivation of the UN as the expression of the will of the international community be impar­tially maintained in the nonselective imple­mentation of legality and the values of justice and moral politics.

If a new global vision is emerging, it must be solidly based on the objective will and consent of the international community and must protect the inviolable rights of peoples as enshrined in the UN Charter and all other international conventions and agreements.

Such a vision of justice, peace, and stabil­ity cannot admit the subjective criteria of power, wealth, land acquisition, strength of arms, natural resources, ethnic origins, reli­gious affiliation, cultural perspectives, or na­tional identity as factors in upholding rights and passing judgements.

Nor must such resolutions be held captive to the intransigence of the violator in relation to the victim or to the manipulation of the powerful to the weak. The will of the inter­national community must be maintained as a firm and uniform reference for equitable arbi­tration not subject to selective alteration or deferment.

We, the Palestinians of the intifada, the portion of the Palestinian nation who bear the yoke of occupation rather than exile and dis­persion, on the strength of our commitment to this new vision affirm the following:

1. The PLO is our sole legitimate leader­ship and interlocutors, embodying the na­tional identity and expressing the will of the Palestinian people everywhere. As such, it is empowered to represent us in all political ne­gotiations and endeavors, having overwhelm­ing support of its constituency. The Palestin­ian people alone have the right to choose their leadership and will not tolerate any at­tempt at interference or control in this vital issue.

2. We confirm our commitment to the Palestinian peace initiative and political program as articulated in the 19th PNC of No­vember 1988, and maintain our resolve to pursue a just political settlement of the Pales­tinian-Israeli conflict on that basis. Our ob­jective remains to establish the independent Palestinian state on the national soil of Pales­tine, next to the state of Israel and within the framework of the two-state solution.

3. Our adherence to the international le­gitimacy remains unwavering, and we uphold the rule of international law in accepting and supporting all UN resolutions pertaining to the question of Palestine, and thus call for their immediate and full implementation.

4. The national rights of the Palestinian people must be recognized, safeguarded, and upheld – foremost among which is our right to self-determination, freedom, and state­hood.

5. No state must be singled out for pref­erential treatment by the international com­munity or considered above the norms and laws that govern the behavior of or relations among nations. Thus Israel must not be al­lowed to continue preempting, rejecting, or violating UN resolutions vis-a-vis the Pales­tinians especially in the annexation of East Jerusalem, the establishment of settlements, and the confiscation of land and resources.

Of particular relevance and urgency is the imperative necessity of applying the Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949 to protect the defenseless and civilian Palestinian popula­tion from the brutality of the occupation, par­ticularly in its persistent violations of our most basic human rights and all forms of col­lective punishments such as house demoli­tions, closure of universities and schools, cur­fews, military sieges, and economic strangulation.

6. The de facto sovereignty which Israel illegally practices over occupied Palestine must cease immediately, and a system of pro­tection for Palestinians and accountability for Israel must be established and applied within the mandate of the UN with the Security Council exercising its right of enforcement.

7. The peace process must be advanced with the momentum generated by the will of the international community, and not made subject to Israeli concurrence and rejection.

8. The most suitable mechanism for ad­vancing the peace process is the international conference which is capable of producing concrete results. Any transitional steps or ar­rangements will have to be structured within a comprehensive, interconnected, and coher­ent plan with a specified time frame for im­plementation and leading to Palestinian state­hood.

9. The peace process cannot be further undermined by Israel's policy of creating facts to alter the geopolitical, demographic, or so­cial realities of our area. The political decap­itation of the Palestinian people through the arrest and detention of our political activists and peace advocates must stop and the de­tainees released. The “Iron Fist” policy and the escalation of all forms of repression and harassment not only create intolerable condi­tions for Palestinians but also generate feel­ings of hostility and bitterness which are ca­pable of sabotaging the peace process.

10. Security for the whole region will be ensured only through a genuine and interna­tionally-guaranteed peace, not through the ac­quisition of arms and territory or violence. Genuine peace and stability will result from addressing the central causes of conflicts in a serious and comprehensive manner, the Pal­estinian question being the key to regional stability. Only by solving the Palestinian-Is­raeli conflict can the Arab-Israeli conflict be solved in a durable and just manner.

11. The stability and prosperity of the region can be achieved through future coop­eration based on mutuality, reciprocity, and recognition and pursuit of joint interests and rights.

As Palestinians under occupation, we are able to transcend the inequities and oppres­sion of the present and to project a future im­age of peace and stability. In doing so, we affirm our national rights, adhere to interna­tional legitimacy, and envisage the prospects of a new world based on the politics of justice and morality.

 

Source: Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. xx, no 4, Summer 1991.