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Olmert ad Abbas: noi lasceremo la Cisgiordania se voi riprenderete Gaza

Il primo ministro israeliano Olmert ha presentato al presidente palestinese Abbas un piano per il ritiro dalla Cisgiordania, attuabile solo dopo che l'Autorità Palestinese abbia ripreso il controllo della striscia di Gaza.

 Il piano prevede in pratica il mantenimento di tutti gli insediamenti, poiché la demarcazione dei confini seguirebbe il percorso del Muro dell'Apartheid, ma ai Palestinesi sarebbe concesso il corridoio di accesso tra Cisgiordania e Gaza. Che generosità!

L'altra Lombardia - SU LA TESTA
agosto 2008


Olmert to PA: We'll quit West Bank when you retakeGaza

By AlufBenn, Haaretz Correspondent

 

Prime Minister Ehud Olmerthas presented Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with aproposal for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, totake place after Abbas' forces have retaken Gaza, as part of an agreement in principle on borders, refugees andsecurity arrangements between Israel and a futurePalestinian state.

Olmert, who met with Abbas this week, feels thereis time to reach an agreement during his remaining time inoffice. He is now awaiting a decision from the Palestinians.

The centerpiece of Olmert'sdetailed proposal is the suggested permanent border, whichwould be based on an Israeli withdrawal from most of theWest Bank. In return for the land retained by Israel in the West Bank, the Palestinians would receive alternative landin the Negev, adjacent to the Gaza Strip. The Palestinianswould also enjoy free passage between Gaza and the WestBank without any security checks, the proposal says.

A senior Israeli official said the Palestinians weregiven preliminary maps of the proposed borders.

Under Olmert's offer, Israelwould keep 7 percent of the West Bank, while the Palestinians would receive territory equivalent to 5.5percent of West Bank. Israel views the passage between Gazaand the West Bank as compensating for this difference:Though it would officially remain in Israeli hands, it wouldconnect the two halves of the Palestinian state - aconnection the Palestinians did not enjoy before 1967, whenthe Gaza Strip was under Egyptian control and the West Bankwas part of Jordan.

The landto be annexed to Israel would include the large settlementblocs, and the border would be similar to the present routeof the separation fence. Israel would keep Ma'aleh Adumim,Gush Etzion, the settlements surrounding Jerusalem and someland in the northern West Bank adjacent to Isra el.

Since Olmert and DefenseMinister Ehud Barak recently approved more construction in both Efrat and Ariel, two settlements relatively far fromthe 1949 armistice lines, it is reasonable to assume thatOlmert wants to include these settlements in the territoryannexed to Israel as well.

Olmert's proposal states that once a border isagreed upon, Israel would be able to build freely in thesettlement blocs to be annexed.

The settlements outside the new border would be evacuated in two stages. First, after the agreement inprinciple is signed, the cabinet would initiate legislationto compensate settlers who voluntarily relocate withinIsrael or to settlement blocs slated to be annexed. Over thepast few months, Olmert has approved construction ofthousands of housing units in these settlement blocs,mostly around Jerusalem, and some are intended for thevoluntary evacuees.

In thesec ond stage, once the Palestinians complete a series ofinternal reforms and are capable of carrying out the entireagreement, Israel would remove any settlers remaining eastof the new border.

Olmertwill to try to sell the deal to the Israeli public based ona staged program of implementation. The presentnegotiations, which started with the Annapolis Summit inNovember 2007, are intended to reach a "shelf agreement"that would lay the foundations of a Palestinian state.However, implementation of the shelf agreement would be postponed until the Palestinian Authority is capable ofcarrying out its part of the deal.

Olmert's proposal for a land swap introduces anew stage in the arrangement: Israel would immediatelyreceive the settlement blocs, but the land to betransferred to the Palestinians and the free passagebetween Gaza and the West Bank would only be delivered afterthe PA retakes control of the Gaza Strip. In this way,Olmert could tell the Israeli public that Israel isreceiving 7 percent of the West Bank and an agreed-upon border, while the Israeli concessions will be postponeduntil Hamas rule in Gaza has ended.

Abbas, for his part, could tell his people thathe has succeeded in obtaining 98 percent of the West Bankfrom Israel, along with a promise to remove all settlersover the border.

ThePalestinians' proposal had talked about a much smaller landswap, of about 2 percent of the West Bank.
Compared to previous Israeli-Palestiniannegotiations, the Olmert proposal falls between the onethen prime minister Barak presented to Yasser Arafat atCamp David in July 2000 and the one he offered at Taba inJanuary 2001. The Palestinian proposal is similar to theones offered during the Arafat years, which would haveallowed Israel to annex only a few settlements, along withtheir access roads - a proposal nicknamed "balloons andstrings." All these Palestinian proposals ruled outallowing Israel to retain the settlement blocs.

Since then, however, theseparation fence has been built in the West Bank, and a newphysical reality has been created in the areas where thefence has been completed.

Israel also presented the Palestinians with adetailed model of new security arrangements under theproposed agreement. The security proposal was drawn up by ateam headed by Maj. Gen. Ido Nehoshtan, now commander of theIsrael Air Force, but previously head of the army's Plansand Policy Directorate. The proposal has also been passedon to the Americans, in an effort to obtain their supportfor Israel's position during the negotiations.

The security proposalincludes a demand that the Palestinian state bedemilitarized and without an army. The Palestinians, incontrast, are demanding that their security forces becapable of defending against "outside threats," an Israeli official said.

On the refugeeissue, Olmert's proposal rejects a Palestinian "right ofreturn" and states that the refugees may only return to thePalestinian state, other than exceptional cases in which refugees would be allowed into Israel for familyreunification. Nevertheless, the proposal includes adetailed and complex formula for solving the refugee problem. Olmert has agreed with Abbas that the negotiationsover Jerusalem will be postponed. In doing so, he gave into the Shas Party's threats that it would leave thecoalition if Jerusalem were put on the negotiating table.

Olmert views reaching anagreement with the Palestinians as extrem ely important.Such an agreement would entrench the two-state solution inthe international community's consciousness, along with a detailed framework for achieving this solution. In Olmert'sopinion, this is the only way Israel can rebuff challengesto its legitimacy and avoid calls for a "one-statesolution." Such an agreement would show that Israel is notinterested in controlling the territories, or thePalestinians, over the long run, but only until conditionsarise that enable the establishment of a Palestinian state. This position has received strong support from the presentU.S. administration.

Nextweek, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit theregion to continue her efforts to advance the negotiations. However, Olmert opposes her proposal to publish a jointU.S.-Palestinian-Israeli announcement detailing progress inthe negotiations since Annapolis. Olmert objects topublishing partial positions; he only wants to announce acomplete agreement - if one can bere ached.