If your only source of information were Bibi Netanyahu, you might well think that Israel is eager to make peace, if only the Palestinians would keep their end of the agreements.
The truth is quite different.
Although there have been Palestinian breaches of the Oslo Peace Accords and subsequent agreements, it is Israel which has carried out the most flagrant violations of the letter and spirit of these accords. Some examples:
1. Redeployment
Netanyahu’s haggling over whether or not to withdraw from 13% of the territories in what he calls “the second redeployment” obscures the fact that Netanyahu never carried out the first redeployment. The Hebron agreement, which Netanyahu signed in January 1997, obligates Israel to three withdrawals, all of which should have been completed by now, In point of fact, Israel has yet to do even one.
2. Safe Passage
Israel promised to allow the movement of people, vehicles and goods between the various parts of the occupied territories. This is crucial for commerce, access to hospitals, attendance of schools and universities, employment, and even contact between members of the same family. Safe passage, however, has never actually taken place: Israel makes it even more difficult for Palestinians to pass between Gaza and the West Bank than to enter Israel!
3. Territorial Integrity
Oslo defines the occupied territories (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) as a single territorial unit whose integrity will be preserved until decisions are made in the final status talks. And yet there are gross violations of that integrity: the settlements now under construction at Har Homa, East Jerusalem, Silwan, and throughout the territories; the construction of so-called “bypass” roads to allow Israelis to move from settlement to settlement; and the ongoing expropriation of lands for these settlements.
4. Release Of Prisoners
One of the confidence-building measures written into the Oslo Accords was the release of Palestinian prisoners by Israel. While many were released, Israel still has 103 Palestinians incarcerated as “administrative detainees” – a euphemism for people imprisoned for lengthy periods without trial or due process.
5. Human Rights
Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed to abide by internationally accepted norms of human rights and the rule of law. However, every home demolished, every acre of land expropriated, and every time someone under arrest is tortured by the so-called “security services” is a gross violation of human rights and destructive of support for peace among the Palestinians.
The above do not even begin to enumerate the less sweeping breaches of the accords: the Israeli civil administration in the territories was not disbanded, the main market street in Hebron was not re-opened, an Israeli military decree prohibits Palestinians from repairing homes in most sections of Jerusalem, arrangements were not made for opening an airport or seaport in Gaza, and so forth. (See the excellent listing at the Gush Shalom web site: http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives.html)
Our Response
In response to the crumbling of the peace negotiations, an emergency meeting was held last Friday (June 12th) of the Jerusalem Link – the coordinating body of Bat Shalom and our Palestinian partners, the Jerusalem Center for Women. After reviewing the severity of the situation, our joint organization decided to launch a major international campaign:
- To demand implementation of the interim Oslo peace accords; and
- To mobilize support internationally and among our peoples for an independent and viable Palestinian state side-by-side with Israel.
The women of the Jerusalem Link believe that the state of Palestine is an urgent moral and political imperative. Without it, the Palestinians will never have justice and the Israelis will never have peace.
We are now laying the groundwork for this campaign, planned to culminate in May 1999 – the scheduled deadline for completion of the final status talks and the expected proclamation by Arafat of establishment of a Palestinian state. More details soon.