Negotiations Worthless When Israel Continues to Dictate Fait Accompli on the Ground, says Barghouthi

Ramallah, 13-12-07: In a review of events in Palestine in 2007 at a press conference in Ramallah yesterday, PNI Secretary General Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP stressed that Israel‘s continuing efforts to dictate a fait accompli on the ground through settlement construction and expansion, ongoing killings, injuries and arrests of Palestinians, the siege on Gaza, and its rejection of core issues, continue to underline its lack of commitment to real peace. 

On the issue of Israeli attacks, and killings, injuries and arrests in 2007, Dr. Barghouthi presented data confirming an intensification of Israel military violence against the Palestinian people even after the Annapolis meeting was announced by George Bush on 17 July 2007.

He highlighted that the ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed in 2007 had risen to 37:1, and to a massive 55:1 since 17 July 2007, up from 30:1 in 2006, and 4:1 from 2000-2005.

Dr. Barghouthi also focused heavily on Israel‘s expansion and construction of, and refusal to dismantle any settlements, saying that this was a further indication of Israel‘s sense of absolute impunity with regard to international law and United Nations resolutions, as well as international criticism of its actions.

He cited the case of the Har Homa settlement between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, built on the Palestinian-owned lands of Abu Ghneim Mountain, where the Israeli Housing Ministry has announced plans to build an extra 307 housing units.  The announcement came exactly one week after Ehud Olmert declared in his speech at Annapolis that Israel will abide by all its commitments under the Roadmap, which calls specifically on Israel to immediately freeze all settlement activity, including natural growth.

Dr. Barghouthi added that the international community had failed in its pledges to support the peace process, and its responsibility of upholding international law in the case of Palestine.  He said that the United States, the European Union and the Quartet had not exerted sufficient pressure on Israel to halt settlement construction and expansion, and to dismantle all settlements, and they had failed to link preferential trade agreements and aid to Israel to freezing settlement activity in order to oblige Israel to abide by international law.

He pointed out that the expansion of the Har Homa settlement near Jerusalem was again proof of Israel‘s refusal to negotiate on the core issue of the status of Jerusalem, and its desire to annex as much of the occupied city as possible before it accepts any final peace deal.

Dr. Barghouthi also focused on the humanitarian crisis engineered in Gaza by Israel, and said that no negotiation process could claim credibility when it is based on the exclusion of the Gaza Strip. He described the plight of Gazans who continue to suffer because of Israeli measures of collective punishment: fuel and electricity cuts and crippling border closures affecting all spheres of life from access to water and basic foodstuffs, to the functioning of waste treatment plants, to the availability of essential medications and medical equipment and the provision of healthcare services. 

He reported that 91 drug items out of 416 essential drugs are at zero availability, 188 medical supply items out of 596 essential medical supplies are at zero availability, and that due to a lack of spare parts, the majority of diagnostic laboratory equipment, x-ray machines and equipment for orthopaedic surgeries are not functioning.

The MP concluded that without immediate Palestinian action, current negotiations would become a cover-up for Israeli actions on the ground and would lead to deepening internal divisions and separation, allowing Israel to transform facts on the ground to an extent that would only allow for a Palestinian Bantustan state within temporary borders, based on an Apartheid system of segregation and inequality.

He again urged the Palestinian Authority to demand that Israel abide by four preconditions before pursuing further negotiations:

1. The retraction of the Israeli government‘s decision to declare Gaza a "hostile entity", an immediate halt to the siege on Gaza, and an end to Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people;
2. A comprehensive and complete freeze on all settlement activity, including the expansion of settlements and outposts, the confiscation of land, and the seizure and destruction of Palestinian property;
3. An end to the construction, and the dismantlement of the Apartheid Wall; and
4. A scheduled plan to solve all final status issues; Jerusalem, Palestinian statehood, refugee rights, and settlements.

Dr. Barghouthi stressed the need to revive the spirit of peaceful, non-violent struggle and to restore national unity, and called for a national strategy based on the following bases:

1. Continue and expand peaceful, popular, non-violent protests against Israel‘s occupation;
2. Strengthen and support Palestinian steadfastness, particularly in areas badly affected by the Apartheid Wall;
3. Draw upon the support of the international solidarity movement in advocating  an end to the occupation and to the Apartheid Wall; and
4. Re-build national unity between all Palestinian political parties and factions.