GENEVA, 1 December 2003 — A private Middle East peace plan dubbed the Geneva initiative will be launched here today despite outright opposition from the Israeli government and lukewarm support from the Palestinian leadership.
The bid, drafted by left-wing Israeli opposition politicians and prominent Palestinians, includes detailed proposals to resolve some of the thorniest issues in the bitter Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It is being unveiled as the internationally-backed “road map” for peace has been left floundering by continuing violence on the ground and Israel’s building of what it terms a “security” barrier in the occupied West Bank. “For the first time there is a detailed plan showing what could be the outcome of negotiations,” Anis Al-Qaq, the Palestinian leadership’s representative in Switzerland said.
The plan deals with all key issues in the conflict, but its de facto renunciation to the right of return of some four million Palestinian refugees has earned it staunch opposition from many Palestinian factions.
Today’s launch ceremony in Geneva was due to be attended by 700 guests including former US President Carter, the Nobel peace laureate who helped broker the Camp David accords that led to the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.
But Israel is warning the international community and its US ally not be coaxed into supporting the blueprint, which has no official backing although it has drawn European support and encouragement from Washington.
The Geneva plan is also unable to boast the full endorsement of the Palestinian leadership and Islamic movements such as Hamas are sharply opposed.
Yesterday, about 300 militants from an umbrella group representing all Palestinian factions, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Yasser Arafat’s mainstream Fatah party blocked a Palestinian delegation heading to Geneva from the Gaza Strip.
Chanting “No to treason”, the protesters scuffled with members of the 50-strong delegation as the group crossed from Gaza into Egypt to catch a plane to the Swiss city.
The protesters accused the delegates of selling out millions of Palestinian refugees who claim a right of return to what is now Israel.
Two Palestinian Cabinet ministers and two members of the Palestinian Parliament who negotiated the “Geneva Accords” said they would not attend today’s ceremony because President Yasser Arafat had not formally supported the deal.
“You should not be allowed to go to concede our right of return,” one protester shouted as the crowd at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt shoved the delegates, who eventually managed to shoulder their way across the frontier.
Egypt meanwhile was preparing to host 12 Palestinian factions to encourage them to halt attacks on Israelis and pave the way for a revival of peace negotiations.
The 50-page Geneva document details the creation of a Palestinian state encompassing 97.5 percent of the West Bank with shared sovereignty over Jerusalem. The Palestinians will waive the right of return for some 3.8 million refugees under the initiative.
Switzerland, which financed and helped out the secret talks, will act as guardian of the initiative, with Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey overseeing the signing ceremony.
The chief driving force on the Israeli side is former Justice Minister Yossi Beilin while the main Palestinian instigator is former information minister and Arafat confidant Yasser Abed Rabbo. Arafat last week praised the unofficial effort but stopped short of giving it his endorsement.
Few regard the Geneva initiative as an alternative to the official track pressed by the so-called quartet — the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States. But its backers say they want to press home the message that “peace is possible.”
Meanwhile, two Palestinians convicted of masterminding a series of suicide bombings against Israeli targets in 2002 were sentenced yesterday to 36 consecutive life terms in an Israeli military court.
The sentences were meted out against Mohammed Hassan Arman and Walid Anjas for their role in bombings in Jerusalem and Rishon Le Zion, south of Tel Aviv, in which 35 people died.
The attacks also wounded 205 people. Military courts typically add one life sentence for large numbers of non-fatal casualties.
Arman and Anjas refused to express remorse for their actions.
“We are people who want to be free of the Israeli occupation,” Arman said. “We have nothing to regret.”
