Negotiations: A Futile Demand

I admit that I am finding it hard to understand what exactly PM Benjamin Netanyahu is requesting in his demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish State. On the face of it, this is a repetition of what Netanyahu did in his first term as Prime Minister. In 1996 he disrupted the Oslo Process in the claim that until the Palestinians fulfill all their obligations, Israel is exempt from making any political progress. Apparently – a legitimate demand; in reality – an excuse to avoid progress in a process he did not want nor believe in.

 

Is Netanyahu's current demand similar? Perhaps it is and perhaps it is not. That is to say, it is indeed possible that Netanyahu is creating an impediment which doesn't exist in reality, in order to justify his acceptance of the two-state solution in the eyes of his hawkish friends. The same two-state solution that his predecessor as the head of the Likud Party, Ariel Sharon, accepted from the prime minister's seat.

 

Noteworthy is the fact that when we were conducting negotiations with the Palestinians in Oslo, we agreed on the issues that would be raised during the negotiations process on a future final-status agreement (borders; Jerusalem; security arrangements; refugees). The question of the existence of a Palestinian state was not brought to the table and it was the Palestinians who insisted it stay this way. The reason is that according to them the question of the Palestinian state is non-negotiable. From their perspective the Palestinian state was established on November 14^th, 1988 –acknowledged by many states, and this is certainly not the type of thing that Israel is supposed to "grant" the Palestinians.

 

Had PM Netanyahu bothered to read the Palestinian Declaration of Independence from that day, he would have found the following statement: "Despite the historical injustice inflicted on the Palestinian Arab people resulting in their dispersion and depriving them of their right to self-determination, following upon UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (1947), which partitioned Palestine into two states, one Arab, one Jewish, yet it is this Resolution that still provides those conditions of international legitimacy that ensure the right of the Palestinian Arab people to sovereignty".

 

In other words, should President Obama request President Abbas to fulfill Netanyahu's demand, the Palestinian President could simply grab his copy of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, highlighted with Saeb Erakat's marker, and thus prove to the American President that Netanyahu's claim has already been fulfilled.

 

The Israeli-Palestinian Geneva Accord (2003) states that "this agreement marks the recognition of the right of the Jewish people to statehood and the recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to statehood, without prejudice to the equal rights of the Parties' respective citizens". The Accord also states that "The Parties recognize Palestine and Israel as the homelands of their respective peoples".

 

Seeing as the Palestinian leadership under Yasser Arafat had already become accustomed to such phrases, I believe that President Abbas could claim that in the permanent-status agreement such things will be explicitly specified. 

 

Therefore, should Netanyahu have wished to present a small request, he may find a stern Palestinian response that will emanate from his initial demand and not necessarily from the difficulty in fulfilling it. And should he have intended to present a difficult demand upfront – he may discover that the Palestinians have no problem in accepting it.

 

Either way, his approach will prove to be a solemn political mistake.