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Middle East Delegation Travellog – The State of Limbo

As part of our Middle East delegation 2011 travellog, Young Fabian Treasurer Claire Leigh weighs up Palestine’s bid to become an independent state.

Day three of our trip to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory saw us go again into Ramallah. I was struck once more by the journey from Jerusalem to the nearby Palestinian city, which takes you past the looming eight-metre high wall and the checkpoint with aggressive looking soldiers pacing outside. As we have done for the previous two days, we pass with ease, white enough to appear harmless – tourists on a sightseeing tour perhaps. But the experience is quite different for those Palestinians who live the other side of that wall, and who have to pass by these soldiers every day on their way to school, work or to visit family. Palestinians need a specific pass for every crossing, made virtual prisoners in their not-quite-state.

Our morning was spent in meetings with members of Fateh Youth and several of the party’s politicians. They spoke passionately about the issues facing the peace process, the reasons why there has been so little movement in recent years and the upcoming bid for Palestinian statehood at the UN. The latter is a controversial unilateral move on the part of the Palestinian Authorities; controversial because it bypasses the stalled negotiation process and risks raising expectations among the Palestinians that will not be matched by real change on the ground. The move could also make it harder for the Palestinian leadership to bargain for a real resolution in the future. Once the UN statehood is set in stone, its terms become non-negotiable.

But then the fact that Israel is so appalled at the surprise move by their neighbours suggests there is something to be gained strategically by the approach. It also promises at least to shake things up a bit, possibly get them moving again. For decades Palestine has existed in a state of limbo, without territorial sovereignty but with airtight borders. Without the right to hold Israelis to account when they commit crimes within those borders but without the assurance that Israelis will be charged in Israel. Without the right to raise their own taxes but in charge of spending millions to provide (or not) basic healthcare and education for its not-quite-citizens. The situation is untenable and yet has tenaciously persisted for longer than anyone thought possible.

If the Palestinians’ unilateral bid for statehood is unhelpful or unrealistic, it’s at least understandable.

Claire Leigh is Treasurer of the Young Fabians and a delegate on the Young Fabian Middle East Trip 2011.

 

Middle East Delegation Travellog – Understanding Israel

As part of our Middle East delegation 2011 travellog, Young Fabian Vice-Chair Sara Ibrahim reflects on Israel’s politics.

Over the course of the last few days two distinct strands of thought have emerged: that security is paramount for Israelis and the Palestinians want to be liberated. So much is agreed between the parties: a two state solution is best, that any boundaries should be drawn along the 1967 green line and that the Palestinians need to develop the structures for statehood.

That is not to say there is no dissent. There are groups of Israeli settlers who are living in settlements well outside the 1967 boundaries and on the Palestinian side. Hamas dispute the right of the Israeli state to exist. However, if the mainstream can agree on the essentials, why is peace so elusive?

It seems to all comes down to power and powerlessness. Coming from the UK it has been difficult to understand the heavy security presence that is evident in and around Jerusalem and the West Bank. In the UK the need for 12-foot security walls and check-points manned with armed (mostly) conscripted soldiers seems anathema. So what is Israel’s rationale?

Today I came closer to an answer. This isn’t just a personal discovery but an important matter for the international community to understand before the UN vote on Palestinian statehood this September. Jeremy Leigh, an Israeli academic, told me and a group of Young Fabians that it wasn’t all about the Holocaust. The fact he told me this at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial site, is more surprising. This is because the West and, many Arab states, have interpreted the creation of Israel as some form of consolation prize for the atrocities perpetrated against the Jewish people by the Nazis.

To say that Zionism didn’t exist before this would be a fallacy. The Jewish people have historically been subject to expulsions from areas they had been well established or mis-treatment. There were the Jewish ghettos in Venice, expulsion of the Sephardic Jews in Spain and the exile to Babylon of the original Jewish community in Jerusalem itself. A culture of being outsiders in the states of others has been a reciting motif of the Israeli narrative and consequently its politics.

Without understanding this viewpoint, the Israeli position can appear irrational. It is not.

The apparent excesses of power shown by the Israeli state are borne out of a feeling of powerlessness. Until Israel has genuine grounds to feel free from attack from extremists then it will not have the strength to negotiate a binding peace agreement. We will know that the Israelis feel truly powerful when they relinquish their checkpoints in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and reduce their army.

One thing is certain – we are not there yet. Until the Palestinians understand the rationale behind the Israeli concerns  - I fear we will not get there.

Sara Ibrahim is Vice-Chair of the Young Fabians and a delegate on the Young Fabian Middle East Trip 2011.

Middle East Delegation Travellog – Palestine’s UN bid

As part of our Middle East delegation 2011 travellog, Roxanne Mashari explains why she now supports Palestine’s UN bid for independent statehood.

September 21st 2011 is not just the day I turn 25, but also the day that the Palestinians will take their bid for independent statehood to the United Nations. You can see faces of the Palestinians that we talk to light up with a sense of hope and energy at the prospect of the bid succeeding and there is a real sense of excitement in the air in the Palestinian Territories.

Dr Sabri Saydam, technology and science advisor to the Palestinian Prime Minister, beamed into our meeting with Fateh Youth this morning clutching a tiny cube in his hand. Taking his seat, Dr Saydam held the cube up for the delegation to see. Inside was a miniature blue chair with a tiny Palestinian flag. The message on the cube reads ‘Palestine’s Right, A Full Membership to the United Nations’.

The overwhelming sense of optimism and pride radiating from Dr Saydam as he speaks is contagious. It’s hard not to get caught up in the energy surrounding the preparation for the bid and sitting here with the Young Fabians, Fateh Youth and Dr Saydam, it becomes difficult to contemplate a down side to the September bid.

We have been reminded throughout our trip of the potential dangers of such a move by the Palestinians. Mark Regev, Spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister, put to us yesterday that the Palestinian bid was unilateral in nature and that granting statehood to the Palestinians in this way would allow them to avoid some of the more tough concessions that would have to be made in order to secure a mutually acceptable bilateral agreement with the Israelis. Peace, Mr Reghev argued, must be secured before Palestinian Statehood and not the other way round

As far as I can see, opposition to the Palestinian bid rests primarily on three main points:

  1. While raising expectations, the bid will do little to change the reality on the ground for the Palestinians.
  2. This is an unilateral move by the Palestinians which seeks to undermine Israel’s role in the peace process.
  3. Any UN agreement for the Palestinians will make negotiations with the Israeli’s far more difficult as the Palestinians will be unwilling to deviate from the UN agreements.

Until yesterday I was intrigued but sceptical of the Palestinian bid for statehood. Today, my doubt turned into support.

Putting our concerns directly to Dr Saydam, Dr Mohammad Shtayyeh and members of Fateh Youth, counter arguments to the bid were refuted in a measured and comprehensive manner.

I was particularly concerned that if the Palestinians were granted statehood via the UN that Israel may be undermined or side-stepped in any future negotiations. Between them, Dr Saydam and Dr Shtayyeh were clear that this bid was in no way a substitute for negotiations with the Israelis, that the reality of any borders would need to be decided face to face with the Israeli authorities, that an independent Palestinian state would be a demilitarised in the interim with an invitation to Nato or the UN to remain within Palestine in order to ensure the security of the Israelis.

The Palestinians believe that the bid this month will ‘transform the nature of the peace talks’ and grant the Palestinian people basic state rights and recognition that will place them in a far stronger and clearer position to negotiate a lasting peace settlement.  A clear narrative behind the reasons for the bid began to emerge throughout our various meetings today. The Palestinians claimed that unilateralism hasn’t worked, bilateralism has failed again and again and so the last port of call must be a multinational route.

The quartet, the UN, America and Israel have all backed the concept of an independent and fully functioning Palestinian state. If the Palestinians are committed to ensuring Israel’s security through demilitarisation and the presence of NATO forces as well as clearly stating that this bid is in no way a substitute for tough talks with Israel (as we heard today) I see no reason why the Palestinians should not take this non-violent multinational route to self determination and statehood.

Dr Saydam said today that he would put off his own daughter’s marriage if it fell in the month of September due to the bid. He is right in his measurement of the scale and unique nature of the opportunity in front of us. Today, every concern we have heard about the bid by the Isrealis was answered and answered convincingly by the Paslestinians we spoke to today.

If this is backed up with action, this bid for statehood could very well be a monumental and non-violent victory for the moderates within the Palestinan Authority and breathe new life into the peace process.

Roxanne Mashari is a member of the Young Fabians and a delegate on the Young Fabian Middle East Trip 2011.

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