Commentary
Playing Coy on the Question of a Palestinian State
On April 30, the "road map" for a peaceful solution to the Palestinian crisis drawn up by the Europen Union, United States, the United Nations and Russia was released. The road map holds open the promise of the creation of an independent Palestinian state by 2005. It calls for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories, while calling on the Palestinian Authority to work cooperatively with Israeli security forces to stop all terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.
The document also calls on the Israeli leadership to issue an "unequivocal statement affirming its commitments to the two-state vision of an independent, viable, sovereign Palestinian state living in peace and security alongside Israel". As well, it calls for "an immediate end to violence against Palestinians everywhere. All official Israeli institutions [must] end incitement against Palestinians."
In addition, it further calls on the Israeli government to "take no actions undermining trust, including deportations, attack on civilians; confiscation and/or demolition of Palestinian homes and property, as a punitive measure or to facilitate Israeli construction; destruction of Palestinian institutions and infrastructure."
Said to be a victory for the Blair government, which was heavily involved in drawing it up, the road map makes no requirement that suicide bombings stop before peace negotiations can begin. This had been a constant demand of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon over the last year, a demand that the Bush administration had supported. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, however, argued this gave terrorist groups a de facto veto over the peace process. It also, of course, gave Israel carte blanche to further its military occupation of Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps and expand the settlements.
The Americans may have given in to British pressures on this question as a matter of throwing the Blair government a bone, since they have pointedly ignored British requests for a prominent role for the UN in the reconstruction of Iraq. Rather, the U.S. is moving decisively to set up a colonial administration. It has also excluded British companies from the lucrative contracts involved in the reconstruction of Iraq.
The U.S. may also believe that the creation of an independent Palestinian state will serve its interests in the region if it proceeds with its planned attack on Syria. The terror, violence and humiliation that is part of daily life for the Palestinian people under occupation has been a source of universal anger in the Arab world for half a century. The creation of a Palestinian state, the Americans seem to think, will mitigate anger at their invasion of other Middle Eastern countries.
Despite this, it is worth noting that the U.S. was the only country to vote against a resolution condemning the expansion of settlements in Palestinian occupied lands at the 59th Session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva on April 15. A UN news release notes "the Commission expressed grave concern at continuing Israeli settlement activities, including the illegal installation of settlers in the occupied territories and related activities, such as the expansion of settlements, the expulsion of Palestinians and the construction of bypass roads, which changed the physical character and demographic composition of the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem." The resolution was adopted with a vote of 50 to 1, with 2 abstentions.
Furthermore, while Bush promised, in the weeks leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, that a Palestinian state would be on the table, leading members of his administration now seem to be backing off. The priority, they have said, is rebuilding Iraq and creating a model for other Arab nations in the region.