15/04/2004

Palestine Media Center- (PMC)

In an unprecedented, dangerous move, US President George W. Bush gave Israel’s premier last night full backing for his go-it-alone plan to disengage from the Gaza Strip and implicitly recognized Israel’s claim to some of the West Bank’s largest settlement blocs as part of any peace accord with the Palestinians.

The US assurances, which represent a decisive, historic shift in US policy on the Middle East, contravened the “roadmap” peace plan, which Washington itself engineered, UN resolutions and international law.

President Bush directly tilted towards the Sharon government by indicting for the first time that the Jewish state can retain six of the biggest settlements built on occupied Palestinian land in any final peace agreement reached with the Palestinians.

Under international law, all settlements are deemed illegal. The traditional American stance has always been that all settlements were illegal and the US administration used to deduct the sum of Israeli investments in settlements from the aid money sent to Israel.

About 92,500 Israelis live in the six settlements, which Sharon wants to maintain a grip on and annex to Israel - out of a total of 240,000 in the West Bank, or 400,000 if occupied east Jerusalem is included.

In a letter to the Israeli premier Ariel Sharon, Bush also voiced unequivocal support for Israeli demands to ensure that any peace deal with the Palestinians should not provide for the thousands of Palestinians who were expelled from their homes by Zionist paramilitaries in 1948 to return to Israel.

Instead, he stressed, they could return to the Palestinian state, which he insisted could still be established in spite of the assurances he gave to the Jewish state.

“It seems clear that an agreed, just, fair and realistic framework for a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue as part of any final status agreement will need to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian state and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel,” he said.

In a clear sign that he did not expect the borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state to conform with international law, the US president said in a joint press conference with Sharon at the White House on Wednesday, “In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949.”

The “roadmap” stipulates that a Palestinian state should be established by 2005 based on UN resolution 242, which specifies that Israel should withdraw its occupying troops to the “green line”—the armistice line of 1949.

Effectively, this means that Israel can annex and keep the settlements of Ma’ale Adumim, the largest colony in the West Bank, which Israel envisions will grow to the edges of Jerusalem, Kiryat Arba, Ariel, Givat Ze’ev, Gush Etzion and the Jewish settler enclave at the heart of the southern West Bank city of Hebron for “eternity” as he had promised settlers.

Vehement Palestinian Rejection

The Palestinian leadership reacted vehemently to the outcomes of the Sharon-Bush meeting yesterday warning that the US assurances given to Israel would mean “clearly the complete end of the peace process” as well as security and stability in the region.

President Yaser Arafat met with his Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei and representatives of the different Palestinian factions in an emergency session Wednesday afternoon at his battered compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah to discuss the “dangerous escalation”.

In a statement, Arafat stressed that the pact would prompt a “cycle of violence and end all the signed agreements” between Israel and the Palestinians.

“The US assurances are being made at the expense of the Palestinian people and the Arab world without the knowledge of the legitimate Palestinian leadership. They are rewarding illegal occupation, settlement and the apartheid wall,” the leadership said.

“We call upon our people, the Arab world, Israeli peace groups, the UN and the Quartet [of diplomatic mediators] to reject this scheme because it violates international resolutions and international law, annuls the roadmap and damages the role of the US as a sponsor for the peace process.” The leadership further stressed.

Moreover, the statement said that the leadership considered the US assurances tantamount to a replacement of the roadmap with Sharon’s plan to “annex land, cement the occupation and expand settlements.”

Bush First President to Legitimize settlements

For his part, the Palestinian premier Ahmad Qurei (Abu Ala’) voiced rejection of the US assurances given by Bush to Sharon, saying they are “gifts that Israel is not lawfully entitled to nor are they worthy of.”

“Bush is the first US President to give legitimacy to Jewish settlement on Palestinian land,” he told reporters at his office in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Dis.

“We reject this American stand and we refuse to deal with its consequences. We only adhere to international resolutions and the roadmap and we reiterate that final status issues, namely Jerusalem, refugees, borders, settlements, water and security cannot be tampered with by any international party.” Abu Ala’ further emphasized.

He also considered the American pledges the “worst bias towards Israel” undertaken by an American administration, while calling for an immediate international conference to discuss the latest developments.

‘Death of Peace Process’

“I believe President Bush declared the death of the peace process today,” reacted Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the PLO’s ruling executive committee and the co-author of the unofficial “Geneva Initiative” for peace in the region.

Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian parliamentarian and former negotiator meanwhile said, “For the first time, American policy violates the basic conditions for peace.”

Abed Rabbo contrasted Bush’s statements with a letter that George H. W. Bush sent to the Palestinians when he was president in 1991, the New York Times relayed.

“The letter contained a very clear statement that key issues would be determined through negotiations, and not through unilateral Israeli decisions,” Abed Rabbo recalled.

Palestinians said Bush’s vows in fact give Sharon a “Carte Blanche” to move ahead with settlement-building on Palestinian land, which will make it almost impossible to create a viable Palestinian state.

Bush “wants the refugees to return to a Palestinian state that will not exist,” Abed Rabbo said.

For his part, Palestinian negotiations minister Sa’eb Erekat told CNN that Bush’s statement violated international law, which viewed the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights as temporary, pending a final peace settlement

He also said, “I don’t think the president can negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians. I can’t sit with [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair and give Texas to China.”

Bush Breaks New Ground

“The message tonight to the Palestinian public is, ‘Don’t count on negotiations to help you achieve your vital interests,’” Khalil Shikaki, a Palestinian pollster and political analyst told The Washington Post. “The overall trend will be more public support and more public demand for violence.”

“President Bush has broken new ground here,” Shikaki said. “I don’t recall ever seeing an American position being so one-sided.”

Annan Criticizes Bush

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan meanwhile criticized President Bush for the unprecedented US policy shift.

Annan accused Bush of ignoring the wishes of Palestinians and circumventing the peace process.

He also said unresolved issues should be determined by both parties based on Security Council resolutions.

Analysts meanwhile saw that Bush had softened his once-tough stand on the wall Israel is building inside the West Bank.

Bush, who once called the wall “a problem,” yesterday appeared to endorse it.

”I am strongly committed to the security of Israel,” he told Sharon. “The barrier being erected by Israel as a part of that security effort should, as your government has stated, be a security rather than a political barrier.

”It should be temporary, rather than permanent, and therefore not prejudice any final status issues, including final borders,” the president added.

If the deal reached yesterday with the Americans is implemented, Sharon would pullout all settlements in the Gaza Strip, where about 7,000 Israelis live illegally amidst 1.3 million Palestinians.

Some 92,500 of 200,000 settlers living in heavily-fortified colonies in the West Bank would stay.

When a reporter pointed out that former President Jimmy Carter had said last week that US Middle East policy is tilted too much toward Israel, Mr. Bush said, “US Middle East policy is tilted toward peace.”