OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 26 November 2003 — Israel’s settlers hit back at Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday with its own alternative peace plan which rules out the creation of a Palestinian state or dismantling any settlements, after Sharon warned there was no alternative to land for peace.
Following on the heels of the internationally backed road map peace plan and the “Geneva Initiative” which is to be officially launched next Monday, the latest blueprint drawn up by right-wing MPs and Jewish settlers’ groups rejects the principle of trading land for peace.
Ben Tzvi Lieberman, a senior member of the Settlers’ Council, said that an alternative was needed as the road map and Geneva plans were “very bad solutions”.
The plan would involve “the eradication of terrorism, the abandonment of the principle of peace in exchange for land, autonomous administration for the Arabs and a final regional accord which would exclude the creation of a Palestinian state or the dismantling of settlements,” Lieberman told public radio.
Settler sources said the plan had been drawn up by MPs, including some from Sharon’s own Likud party, and settler leaders. Sharon, who has said he is considering “unilateral” measures toward the Palestinians, was reported yesterday to have been given a tough time at the hands of his own MPs when he tried to convince them there was no alternative to the land-for-peace principle. The sources said the settlers’ plan would also see an expanded State of Israel, encompassing both the West Bank and Gaza Strip occupied in 1967, divided into 10 separate cantons — two of which would be Palestinian.
With figures indicating the Palestinian population could outstrip the Jewish population in little more than a decade, the canton arrangement would guarantee a Jewish majority in Parliament.
The prime minister would have to be Jewish although the deputy premier could be an Arab.
The plan received predictably short shrift from Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.
“There is only one government in Israel, and all the initiatives which are coming from the left wing or from the right wing ... are only creating problems, whether it’s the Geneva Initiative or any other initiative,” he told reporters.
“There is only one plan, which is called the road map. We should remain on one track ... and not try to find other solutions which cannot be implemented.”
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat dismissed Israeli hints of unilateral moves if a peace plan failed as a sign that Israel was not committed to the US-backed road map in the first place. “This means they don’t want to make peace. It is against the road map,” Arafat said.
— Additional input from agencies
