A source with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) close to the Negotiation Affairs Department vehemently denied allegations made on Saturday, which stated that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was planning on proposing a deal that would give up 6.5 percent of Palestinian lands in negotiations during U.S. President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit on Tuesday.
British online news agency Middle East Eye reported that a Palestinian official close to the PLO gave the company exclusive information regarding the negotiation proposal, which “appears to cement the vision of former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert for a Palestinian-Israeli peace settlement.”
Speaking to Mondoweiss, a source close to the PLO’s Negotiation Affairs Department said the allegations were ludicrous.
“Never in any border negotiations would we present any border modifications of that amount,” the source said. “Those are previous Israeli positions.”
In 2008, Olmert reportedly presented a deal, which Jerusalem Post called an “unprecedented Israeli offer to be tendered to a Palestinian leader.”
The land offer, which consisted of 6.3 percent of West Bank land, included the illegal Israeli settlements of Ariel, the Jerusalem-Ma’aleh Adumin bloc (including E1) and Gush Etzion.
In exchange, Olmert reportedly offered Abbas 5.8 percent of Israeli territory from regions off the north, south and southwest borders of the occupied West Bank. However, none of those 2008 offers ever came to fruition, and the largest land swap ever presented by the Palestinian side in negotiations was around 1.9 percent. The allegations that Abbas was considering a land swap which would give up 6.5 percent of West Bank land would be triple what has ever been reported, and could potentially cause major backlash from the Palestinian public.
Abbas met with U.S. President Trump for the first time during his trip to Washington D.C. in May. Israeli daily Haaretz at the time reported a similar story, writing that “Abbas and his staff showed Trump documents and maps from Israel’s talks with the Palestinians near the end of Olmert’s term, explaining the proposal to him,” however Haaretz did not cite the source of their information.
While Israel has released a detailed schedule for Trump’s visit, the Palestinian Authority has not been so forthcoming on talking points or schedules for Trump’s planned visit with Abbas in Bethlehem on Tuesday.
In Saudi Arabia Sunday, during his first speech outside of the United States, Trump implied that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was a religious issue, stating that “if these three faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) can join, peace in this world is possible, including peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”
Trump’s visit to Israel will begin on Monday. On Tuesday morning he is scheduled to meet with Abbas, before returning to Israel for an event at 12 p.m., and according to Israel’s Government Press Office Trump’s visit will conclude on Tuesday at 4 p.m. with a farewell ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport.
I think Abbas should tell USA/Israel that boundaries are all flexible in the sense that Palestine will gladly accept Israeli land within Israel-48; but not to give up one inch (including any and all settlements) of WB&G except for a trade of Israeli access to the Western Wall for a 4-lane highway between WB and G. After all, 22% of historic Palestine is not enough and Israel has demonstrated contempt for the sanctity of borders (the green line) by its settlement activity, so that it should be willing to give up a bit on the other side.
This much is really in the nature of a speech to the world public, not a realistic proposal.
He might also mention that the present apartheid-style one-state arrangement is not satisfactory and that he will demand full and unrestricted and undiscriminated-against citizenship in Israel for all Palestinians now living within historic Palestine on, say, May 15, 2018, if no other arrangement is earlier made. This too is mostly a suggestion for public diplomacy. But the world must see “results” from the last 50 years and a stand-up declaration of rights by Abbas would be a sort of “result”.
Possibly embarrass USA/Israel for making 50 years of unfair demands (and of course settlement).
He’s right: The conflict stems from the unjust and immoral belief that people who choose to hold the religion-based identity of Jewish are entitled to a religion-supremacist “Jewish State” in as much as possible of Palestine.
And then he’s wrong (again). Three faiths joining (whatever that means) has nothing to do with the real path to peace: The universal and consistent application of justice, accountability and equality. The U.S. needs to stop selectively defending evil and start consistently defending international laws and human rights.
It’s amazing that this has gone on for so long. One state is far better than two states because Palestinians in their historic homeland could finally have the same rights as their overlords. Call the country Israel-Palestine or Palestine-Israel. I know, not fair to the indigenous Palestinians but you have to throw the modern Israelis a bone.
Trump is naive thinking this conflict is easy to solve, many have tried to do so for decades, and have failed. The bottom line is, at the end the Palestinians who have already lost too much, will get the short end of the stick, and through desperation, forced to agree giving up a lot of the land. Ideally the stolen lands should be measured and the Palestinians compensated in some other way. It will always be seen as adding insult to injury any way you look.
The book “The Controversy of Zion” by Douglas Reed provides an explanation for the perception that the Israeli Lobby controls our government. During the fog of war (WW2), there was near unrestricted immigration to the U.S. Roosevelt discouraged questioning for Communist affiliations or other loyalty based questions which allowed a number of agitators to enter our country similar to the situation in Russia before the Revolution in 1917 when the Czar allowed the return of the subversives (e.g. Trotsky). The Plan during the WW2 era was to take control of the Executive branch (Morganthau, House, Frankfurter), the Civil service, and the media. The ADL was the enforcer so that any resistance to the Zionist agenda was dealt with swiftly and brutally. Today, evidence that Zionist dictate our M.E. foreign policy is evident as we see the Yinon Plan to fragment countries hostile to Israel ( 7 countries in 5 years). As the Bolsheviks took control of Russia, the same has happened in the U.S. Israel is using our country’s wealth and prestige to further its agenda which is not always in our best interests.The goal of the Zionists is recreate Greater Israel and it will not stop until that goal has been attained.