Sections
About
Back
Document

Palestinian West Bank – Gaza Delegation: 2nd Memorandum to US Secretary James Baker

Palestinian West Bank – Gaza Delegation

[Second] Memorandum to US Secretary James Baker

East-Jerusalem, 9 April 1991

H.E. Secretary of State James Baker Ill

U.S. Consulate, Jerusalem

With reference to our memorandum of 12 March 1991, we would like to present the fol­lowing comments and questions for immedi­ate consideration:

1. The PLO, our sole legitimate repre­sentative, has demonstrated its genuine com­mitment to the peaceful settlement of the Pal­estinian-Israeli conflict and to advancing the cause of peace through negotiations and dia­logue. To this end, it reacted positively to your previous visit three weeks ago by dele­gating a group of Palestinians from the occu­pied territories to meet with you and carry out a serious and candid discussion of the central issues and to present you with essential ques­tions which need to be addressed in order to facilitate progress in the peace process on sound bases. These efforts were further pur­sued by the PLO during meetings held in Washington, D.C., between a Palestinian from the occupied territories and high level officials from the State Department and the National Security Council.

Among the most pressing issues raised is the recognition of PLO representation of Pal­estinian people everywhere and the futility and counter-productiveness of seeking to un­dermine or negate its legitimacy and of at­tempting to construct an artificial alternative Palestinian leadership. In this context, the restoration of the U.S.-PLO dialogue is an es­sential ingredient for facilitating tangible achievements in the peace process, especially pertinent to the intrinsic and independent Palestinian decision concerning legitimate and credible interlocutors.

2. From this perspective, and in accord­ance with the PLO's policy of maintaining di­alogue and forthright communication, we are seriously interested in meeting with you and in ensuring the success of this projected meet­ing. However, our concern is for substance and not just form, and we are convinced that any meeting of this nature must present quali­tative and incremental progress in concrete terms and not become an end unto itself.

3. Foremost among the issues raised with the American administration is the ur­gent imperative of addressing the brutal Is­raeli measures carried out against the lives, rights, lands, and resources of the Palestinian people under occupation. Israel's policy of intransigence, entrenchment, procrastination, and creating facts is not only a blatant viola­tion of international legality, but is an active negative response to all peace initiatives, which effectively undermines any political progress and destroys all prospects for peace in the region.

Israel's frenzied intensification of the set­tlement policy; its stepped-up confiscation of land and resources; its escalation of the iron­-fist policy in terms of detentions, killings, closed areas, curfews, economic strangula­tion, closures of institutions, and all other forms of collective punishment constitute col­lectively Israel's real response to peace. Such “confidence-building measures” are destroy­ing Palestinian rights and realities, while shattering any faith in an impartial and equi­table peace process which, at such early stages, is incapable of influencing or altering this morally and politically abhorrent reality. Unless Israel is made to cease these policies forthwith, no Palestinian will be in a position to pursue political meetings or endeavors. It is self-evident that Israel's process of confis­cating land and expanding settlements is en­tirely incompatible with any attempts at start­ing a peace process.

4. Israel continues to hold the peace process hostage to its own designs, whether by subjecting it to its self-serving conditions, or by persisting in its refusal to comply with the will of the international community as ex­pressed in UN resolutions 242 and 338, and as reiterated by President Bush on the basis of the principle of “land for peace.” Thus, both its stated and actual policies are consistent in obstructing and destroying the chances for a genuine peace settlement. Consequently, Israel must be held accountable on both levels, and must be brought to comply with the resolutions of the international commu­nity, with the principles of peace and justice which are globally espoused, and with the concrete imperatives of peace as required by the actual process and its declared objectives.

In contrast, the Palestinian people as rep­resented by the PLO have demonstrated not only a genuine commitment to peace but have also acted in a flexible and responsible man­ner to serve its cause. Instead of seeking fur­ther concessions or elaborations from the Palestinians, the time has come for the U.S. to seriously tackle the problem of Israeli rejectionism and intransigence which is the real obstacle to peace. The continuation of this asymmetrical process is neither equitable nor fruitful, and the disequilibrium will inevitably cause the whole process to keel over.

5. The envisaged peace process is fraught with further perils if the “twin-track” approach as articulated by U.S. officials be­comes one of misplaced priorities and asyn­chrony. A comprehensive and integrated ap­proach is more desirable and practicable, and requires regional and international participa­tion and guarantees. Any form of peace con­ference must be based on parity and respect for the sovereignty of each party, while main raining international legitimacy and struc­tures.

6. Any phases in the peace process must be clearly designated as interim stages in an overall process, with the logic of internal co­herence and causality, leading to the defined objectives of independence and statehood, se­curity, and genuine regional stability and de­velopment.

The issues raised here seek to address the substance of any meeting and to ensure genu­ine qualitative progress rather than serve only the ritual or form. We remain willing to pur­sue the PLO policy of an active search for peace, but not at the cost of our national rights nor while Israel persists in its inhuman and illegal policies and measures. Right now, our primary concern continues to be the plight of the Palestinian people under occu­pation, a pressing and vital issue of survival that can bear no further neglect or delays.

On behalf of the Palestinian individuals involved,

(Signed) Faisal al-Husseini

 

Addendum

Re: Land confiscation and settlement expansion

On your last visit, you indicated that you were seeking to promote a series of confi­dence-building measures to be taken by the government of Israel and by Palestinians, as a way to establish a basis for negotiations for our future. I hardly need to review for you the Israeli response which has been to intensify the restrictions on Palestinians – which effec­tively translate into economic strangulation and the fragmentation of our society into Ban­tustan-like areas cut off from our capital, East Jerusalem – and to continue the policy of ex­pulsions. The most serious response, how­ever, which affects our very lives on our land, is the continuation of settlement expansion and the confiscation of Palestinian land.

In the last year, an estimated 15,000 new settlers have moved into the occupied territo­ries and every day brings an average of 50 new settlers. Already, the Jewish population in East Jerusalem equals the Arab population of 150,000, while the Jewish population in the rest of the occupied territories exceeds 100,000.

The stated position of the Israeli Ministry of Housing that “only” 10 percent of new housing starts are taking place in the occu­pied territories is disingenuous and disguises its true intent – to erase the “green line” and to establish facts on the ground in order to sabotage a negotiated settlement.

Since the beginning of the Gulf war, and the imposition of a blanket curfew of the oc­cupied territories for six weeks, Palestinian villages have received notices declaring thousands of dunums “state land” and order­ing them to cease farming or face “trespass­ing” charges.

By the mid-1980s, Israel had already seized over 50 percent of the land base of the West Bank and Gaza for exclusive Jewish use, and every year since, confiscation orders are issued to another 1-2 percent of this land. The clearing of these lands for Jewish hous­ing and road construction has also resulted in the uprooting of over 100,000 olive and other fruit-bearing trees. All this is happening in a period when thousands of workers dismissed from their jobs in Israel have returned to farming as their only source of subsistence.

As precious time is wasted on lengthy dis­cussions and requests for documentation on spending and building plans, our land is be­ing pulled out from under our feet. The de­struction of our farming land and the transfer of large numbers of Israeli civilians onto this land are creating almost insurmountable ob­stacles in the path of peace.

 

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