With peace talks in the doldrums, the Palestinians have fixed their sights on “international activism” and on unity between their rival factions in order to advance their cause. “We are in a truce until January 26,” senior Palestinian official Nabil Shaath told reporters at a recent briefing. “But this political ceasefire will end on January 26,” he said, referring to a deadline set by the international peacemaking Quartet, giving the parties 90 days to submit comprehensive proposals on territory and security. “If on the 26th Israel does not come up with a freeze of the settlements and talks based on the 1967 borders, we will continue our international drive,” said Shaath, who is a senior figure in the ruling Fatah movement of president Mahmud Abbas.
Palestinian negotiators say they have laid out their proposals and suggestions in response to the Quartet’s proposition and they accuse Israel of failing to reciprocate. But Israel, with the backing of Washington, has shown great reluctance to outline its proposals except in the framework of direct negotiations with the Palestinians, whom they accuse of “boycotting” the talks. The Quartet’s latest attempt to resuscitate talks and secure a deal by the end of 2012, was announced on September 23, just hours after the Palestinians submitted a formal request for full state membership at the United Nations.
Both sides welcomed the loosely worded proposal, but with completely different interpretations, prompting each camp to blame the other for the failure to resume talks. “If we don’t snatch it (back) now, the two-state solution is dead,” Husam Zomlot, Fatah’s international affairs adviser, said. Many Palestinians have lost faith in the peace negotiations, which were launched 20 years ago in Madrid and led to the 1993 Oslo Accords but since then have not managed to end decades of conflict.
“Only the first five years were genuine, until the death of (prime minister Yitzhak) Rabin” who was shot dead by a Jewish extremist in 1995, says Shaath. “Since then, the peace process is dead – there has not been any progress. The settlements never stopped, the grabbing of land never stopped,” he said. “While negotiating, Israel has deepened the colonisation of the land,” Shaath said. Negotiator Mohammed Shtayeh agrees. “We have been taken nowhere,” he said earlier this month. “The political negotiation has been used to maintain the status quo.”
With peace negotiations deadlocked for more than a year, the Palestinians were looking to secure a two-state solution through whatever channels they could, Shaath said. “We have no alternative but to go to the UN,” he said. “It is the only alternative. All the other options are extending the conflict forever.”
