The PA Ready to Declare A Palestinian State

 

Ron Ross
Bridges for Peace News
Email: ronrossbfp@hotmail.com

November 18 2009

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is on the verge of declaring statehood. PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat made the announcement. “Now we mobilze,’ he told the Palestinian daily newspaper Al-Ayyam. The proposed state will embrace borders from 4 June, 1967, he said.
A sequence of events by the PA senior leaders has clearly shown a new aggressive unilateral action plan was under way.

Senior PA Central Committeee member Mohammed Dahlan told the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot November 11 the PA intends to seek UN Security Council support for the declaration of the Palestinian State.

This action has been called the Fayyad Plan. PA Prime Minister Salem Fayyad published his plan last August. He set a two-years, state building process and then said he would unilaterally establish the state with or without Israeli cooperation.

News analyst Alan Baker wrote: “While such a plan would appear at first sight to be interesting and even a refreshing change from the routinely expressed Palestinian rhetoric of threats, complaints, and belligerency, one cannot ignore the undertone prevalent throughout the Fayyad plan of unilateral action outside the bilateral negotiating framework.

“It appears that this plan is being presented in the form of an ultimatum. If Israel does not accede to Palestinian demands within the negotiating process, then the Palestinians will act unilaterally outside the negotiating framework. The Fayyad plan takes some of the central issues - including aspects of the Jerusalem issue such as the airport at Atarot, and the issue of the 1967 lines - and intends to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines, and gain international support through Security Council recognition.” (Middle East Strategic Information – MESI- “Issue of the Week” November 17, 2009)

The Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas expressed his personal frustration by saying he would not stand for election next year. His resignation threat was aimed at stimulating an international response to enforce more concessions from the Israelis. Abbas said the delays in reaching statehood had placed him in a ‘very difficult situation.’

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the EU should be in a position to recognize a Palestinian state but there has to be one first, so it is premature to do so, AFP reported Nov. 17. Bildt, whose country holds the EU rotating presidency, spoke to reporters in Brussels before chairing EU talks.

Bildt went on to say he could understand why the Palestinians had made their move. “It is clearly an act borne by a difficult situation where they don’t see any road ahead, and I can understand that.”

The EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana warned that a viable Palestinian state ‘has to be done with time and with calm, and in an appropriate manner.’ He said no one was ‘looking for that today.’

The Israel reaction was swift. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Monday said, any independent move made by the PA ‘will be countered by a unilateral move on our part.’

Israel parliament member Uri Ariel of the National Union provoked Abbas to declare statehood as fast as possible.

"I pray for Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, to declare a state unilaterally,” he said. “That is the only way we can finally annul the wretched Oslo accord, which exacted a price in blood and brought the PLO terrorists into the state of Israel."

“A statement of this nature means that the government will have no choice but to annex all of the communities in Judea and Samaria,” said MK Ariel. “In practice,” he added, “it will have to annex the entire region and formally turn it into a part of the state of Israel.” 

Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu has his own conditions for a Palestinian state. While the PA or Fatah and Hamas in particular refuse to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state, the process is on hold.

The strong stand by Netanyahu will continue to frustrate the twists and turns of Arab ambitions. Until the PA show they have the propensity to live as peaceful neighbors they can hardly expect success.