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January 6, 2012
CMEP Bulletin
New Year Brings Mixed Bag for Peace Prospects
New Year Brings Face-to-Face Talks
Santorum: “There is no Palestinian”
Israel Deals With Extremist Settlers
New Settlements Announced, Outposts Legalized
Christmas Messages from the Holy Land
The U.S. Contributes to UNRWA
New Year Brings Face-to-Face Talks
In a surprising turn of events, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators met face-to-face for the first time in 16 months on January 3 in Amman.
Chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s envoy Yitzhak Molcho with proposals on borders and security and the Israelis responded January 5 with a 21 point set of general principles of, “what will be needed to reach a final agreement, not with detailed Israeli proposals.” Talks are to resume January 9 in Amman.
PLO officials say the meeting did not mean negotiations had been restarted. Instead, they insist they are fulfilling the obligations of the Quartet to submit proposals by January 26. Palestinians have not dropped their demand that Israel halt settlement activity and return to pre-1967 borders with swaps. If Israel does not meet their Quartet obligations by January 26, Abbas has promised to respond with “hard measures,” which could mean more moves in the UN.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released a statement when the talks were announced saying, “We are hopeful that this direct exchange can help move us forward on the pathway proposed by the Quartet. As the President and I have said before, the need for a lasting peace is more urgent than ever. The status quo is not sustainable and the parties must act boldly to advance the cause of peace.”
However, not everyone was pleased by the developments. A spokesman for the Islamist Palestinian party Hamas, Fawzi Barhoom, said the meeting was a “farce” and a “waste of time.” He also said the talks “contradict the hopes and aspirations of our people.” Ismail Radwan, another Hamas leader said, “We consider these meetings a blow for national reconciliation, especially as we agreed in Cairo to face Israel's settlements, wall, and attacks together.”
Santorum: “There is no Palestinian”
With Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum emerging from the back of the pack, comes increased scrutiny. One story that has received some attention this week is that Santorum denied Palestinian existence. Responding to a question on the topic, he answered “All the people that live in the West Bank are Israelis. They are not Palestinians. There is no Palestinian. This is Israeli land.”
The Washington Post points out that Santorum is taking an even more conservative position than the Israeli government, who refers to the West Bank as “disputed territory.” By calling Palestinians “Israelis” it seems he might envision a one-state solution that would grant equal rights to Jews and Arabs. Many Israeli politicians reject this solution because demographic changes would lead to an Arab majority. The Washington Post’s fact checker gave the statement “four Pinoccios” which means it contains, “Significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions.”
Israel Deals With Extremist Settlers
Senior officer in the Israeli Police, Haim Rahamim, told a committee of the Knesset that the police have been unsuccessful in their efforts to combat crimes by extremist settlers in the West Bank. Rahamim says there were 228 incidents of attacks on security forces by settlers in 2011. This figure does not include crimes against Palestinians and their property. The officer added that there were 65 indictments served against the radical settlers.
On Thursday, the Israeli Defense Forces announced the temporary expulsion of 12 extremists based on suspicions they were orchestrating violent attacks against Palestinians and Israeli security forces. The expulsions range from three to nine months.
New Settlements Announced, Outposts Legalized
Israel is maintaining its tradition of announcing new settlement construction on the eve of important meetings and visits promoting a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Hours before the meeting between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, Israel’s Housing Ministry and the Israel Lands Administration issued three new tenders for the construction of 300 housing units in the settlements of Pisgat Ze’ev and Har Homa, which are beyond the Green Line.
Israeli NGO, Ir Amim responded to the announcement in a statement saying, “By releasing the tender at this time, Israel is slapping the face of King Abdullah and the entire international community, morbidly injuring the already low chances of peace talks to be renewed".
The Israeli government dismissed the controversy, with the Housing Minister Ariel Atias saying, "It is clear that in any future agreement, these neighborhoods will stay under Israel's sovereignty.”
On December 28, the Israeli authorities came to an agreement with settler leaders to relocate an outpost onto state land in the West Bank, in exchange for granting it legal approval. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the government must dismantle Ramat Gilad, an outpost that was built largely on Palestinian owned land by the end of 2011. If an agreement had not been reached, Israel would have had to forcibly evict the settlers. Now, Ramat Gilad will move a few dozen yards to state owned land and become a neighborhood of the nearby settlement Karnei Shomron.
Peace Now, whose petitions have prodded the process along, on Wednesday rejected the agreement. Speaking on Israeli radio, organization official Yariv Oppenheimer called the accord a "government capitulation to the settlers, who have proved once again they make the facts on the ground."
Christmas Messages from the Holy Land
This Christmas, tens of thousands of tourists and Christian pilgrims descended upon the West Bank city of Bethlehem to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The Israeli military, which controls movement in and out of the town, said 100,000 visitors, including foreigners and Arab Christians from Israel, went through the checkpoint, up from 70,000 last year. All in all, it was the highest turnout in more than a decade.
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, delivered his Christmas message on December 21, expressing his desire for a two-state solution and encouraging Christians from around the globe to come visit the Holy Land.
Bishop Munib Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land also came out with a Christmas message. He also supported a two-state solution, saying, “I call upon leaders to push forward the vision of a two-state solution according to international legitimacy and with a shared Jerusalem that this dream will be incarnated in everyone’s heart and life.”
The U.S. Contributes to UNRWA
On January 3, the U.S. State Department was, “pleased to announce an initial 2012 contribution of $55 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).”
The United States is UNRWA’s largest bilateral donor and this contribution will go to providing health, education and humanitarian services to five million Palestinian refugees. In 2011, the U.S. provided about $250 million to the agency.
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