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Roadmap To Peace in Palestine - House of Commons Library
Roadmap To Peace in Palestine - House of Commons Library
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A Westminster Hall debate on the Roadmap to peace in Palestine has been scheduled for Wednesday 17
November 2021, from 4.30-5:30pm. The debate has been initiated by Tahir Ali MP.
A Chatham House report notes that the structure and content of the Roadmap mattered much less than the way it was handled by the
US administration . In 2003, President Bush was preoccupied by Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Roadmap was not a high priority. Thus
he, and the other Quartet members allowed the Roadmap to be “stripped of its substance” by the then Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel
Sharon. Combined with continued violence in the region this rendered the Roadmap a dead letter.
Since then, there have been a number of attempts to create a new roadmap or path to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
These are set out below in brief: it is not intended to be an exhaustive history of initiatives for peace.
April 2004: Disengagement plan for Gaza and parts of the West Bank
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presented the detail of his Disengagement Plan, which called for the withdrawal of all 7,500 Jewish
settlers and Israeli military installations from Gaza. This withdrawal was completed in September 2005.
It was not until 5 March that Abbas, under heavy pressure from the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice after her visits to Egypt the
West Bank and Israel, agreed to the resumption of talks.
The Palestinian group Hamas, which had won parliamentary elections and taken control of the Gaza Strip, was not represented. It
declared it would not be bound by anything decided.
The talks came to an abrupt halt with Israel’s military offensive in Gaza in December 2008.
After months of hard diplomacy, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Abbas had agreed to “re-
launch direct negotiations to resolve all final status issues” and that they believed the talks could “be completed within one year”.
The talks were also attended by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan. Expectations were low and deadlock
was reached within weeks.
While supporting the idea of a two-state solution, the borders of those states would be significantly changed. The plan proposed that
Israel would acquire sovereignty over approximately 30 percent of the West Bank, that Jerusalem would become the capital of Israel
with the city “remaining Israel’s undivided capital” and that in exchange the Palestinians would be given land in the desert near Gaza.
More detail is provided in Library Briefing Paper, Annexation of the West Bank .
The Palestinian Authority (PA) rejected the US peace plan before it was published. Similarly, Hamas officials in Gaza opposed the plan.
Regional responses have been mixed, with a few offering qualified support and others opposing the plan outright.
The UN called on Israel to abandon the threat of annexation and for the Palestinian leadership to re-engage with the Middle East
Quartet.
Abraham Accords
Close on the heels of Trump’s Plan for Peace, came the Abraham Accords—agreements to normalise relations between Israel, the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain. At the time, the accords were portrayed as a barter to prevent the planned annexation of the
West Bank in exchange for normalisation of ties with the UAE. The agreements were the first peace deals any Arab country signed with
Israel in 26 years.
The Trump administration viewed them as a model for outsourcing regional security that would allow the US to prioritise its interests
beyond the Middle East. However, only Morocco and Sudan have so far followed suit and signed normalisation agreements with Israel.
Writing for Chatham House, Yossi Mekelberg said:
Normalizing relations between these countries and Israel was the logical conclusion of regional developments in recent years, however,
they will find it hard to fully flourish without a just and fair solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The fighting took place from 10 May, to a ceasefire overnight on 20 to 21 May. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
for the Occupied Palestinian Territory reported that the escalation in hostilities killed 256 Palestinians (at least 129 of those civilians),
including 66 children, and 10 Israelis (plus 3 foreign nationals), including 2 children. The fighting also caused 1,948 injuries in
Palestinian territory, and 710 injuries in Israel. At the peak of the hostilities, up to 113,000 people were displaced before the ceasefire.
After eleven days, both sides agreed to a ceasefire and declared victory.
East Jerusalem has long been a flashpoint, with an uneasy coexistence there between Jews and Arabs. Israel effectively annexed East
Jerusalem in 1980 and considers the entire city its capital. Palestinians claim the eastern half of Jerusalem as the capital of a hoped-
for state of their own.
Most other countries do not recognise Israel’s claim. Although former President Trump moved the United States embassy to Jerusalem
in 2018, almost all other countries have kept their embassies in Tel Aviv.
In May it became the scene of nationalist and religious tensions with Palestinians clashing with ultra-nationalists and Israeli police
forces trying to keep them apart. Arabs living in Israel joined the protests in support of the Palestinians.
The escalation of conflict was arguably “connected to a broader landscape of destabilising factors whose cumulative weight led to the
current crisis after months of incubation,” as noted by Professor Carlo Aldrovandi .
A court ruling, due on 10 May was postponed. Israelis used that day to celebrate ‘Jerusalem Day’, marking the occupation of East
Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. This led to further violence.
Concerned about the escalation, the UN Security Council discussed issuing a statement calling on Israel to cease evictions and for
“restraint” and respect for “the historic status quo at the holy sites”
Palestinian in-fighting
On 10 May, Hamas issued an ultimatum , that all Israeli security forces should be removed from the Temple Mount and the Sheikh
Jarrah neighbourhood by 6 pm or Hamas would attack Israel.
The firing of rockets by Hamas from Gaza in retaliation for the injuring of Palestinians in Jerusalem could be interpreted as a sign of
solidarity across the territories, and between Hamas and President Abbas’ Fatah Party. However, it is a commonly-held view that
Hamas is attempting to increase influence among Palestinians outside of Gaza in the run up to elections in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories (OPTs).
Parliamentary elections were scheduled for 22 May and presidential elections for 31 July. Both were postponed on 30 April because of
disputes over voting rights in East Jerusalem and divisions in the Fatah Party.
Many Palestinians regarded the dispute on voting in East Jerusalem as an excuse to avoid elections that Fatah might well lose to
Hamas, as it did in the last parliamentary ballot in 2006.
There are also reports of rivalry within Fatah. Younger challengers to President Abbas have weakened his grip on power.
However, there are reports that the conflict has contributed to a new unified sense of identity and purpose between Palestinians in the
West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza:
while the war resulted in a quick military victory for Israel, it also offered a victory of sorts to Palestinians, putting issues like Sheikh
Jarrah, which had simmered in the background for years, at the center of a new Palestinian sense of purpose.
International Crisis Group analyst Mairav Zonszein also supports this view:
Conceptually, Hamas put the Palestinians back on the radar and Jerusalem at the center of their issues,” she said. “The [Israeli]
government has realized that Palestinians are uniting; that the fragmentation isn’t as effective as they would like it to be; that they
empathize with each other’s struggles, regardless of whether they are in the West Bank, Jerusalem or Gaza.
The dispute over Sheikh Jarrah continues: a recent offer from the Israeli Government has been rejected by the Palestinian families ,
reportedly on the advice of the Palestinian Authority. The settlers have also rejected the offer .
In November, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz named six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organisations. The Defence Ministry said the
organisations were under the control of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and served as a front to secure finances for the
group which is designated a terrorist organisation.
The NGOs are: Addameer, Al-Haq, the Bisan Center, Defense for Children International Palestine, the Union of Palestinian Women’s
Committees and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees.
A joint statement by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called the decision “appalling and unjust.” They said the move
constitutes “ an attack by the Israeli government on the international human rights movement.”
Meretz, one of the political parties which forms part of the governing coalition said: “We are very unhappy with the designation of
human rights organizations as terrorist organizations . So far, it has done more damage to Israel”.
The UK Government has not commented on the designation. In response to a Parliamentary Question on the matter the Government
said:
“We are aware of the decision by the Israeli authorities and will be seeking additional information to understand the basis for the
designations. Human rights and civil society organisations have a vital role to play in the development of thriving, open societies.”
In addition, elections due to be held in May were cancelled in April – due in part to Israeli restrictions on voting in East Jerusalem.
However, the bigger picture may include fears within Fatah and regional neighbours , that Hamas might win an election.
While Abbas is said to be hanging on to power with his party divided and increasingly irrelevant in the context of a renewed sense of
Palestinian solidarity across Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, Hamas too, is finding its support waning as its “ military achievement has
not delivered the expected increase in internal and external political legitimacy”.
The Biden administration has adopted a different rhetoric. It has repeatedly said that Israelis and Palestinians “deserve equal
measures of security, freedom, opportunity and dignity “.
While supportive of the accords, Biden views them as a Trump legacy and has focused on the bilateral rather than trilateral nature of
the agreements, making their broader regional impact harder to assess. He has been criticised for failing to fully embrace or take
forward the Accords.
Biden has agreed to recommence funding to UNRWA.
Some commentators have expressed disappointment at the UK Government response to the fighting in May 2021 arguing that they
expected more from the new “Global Britain”.
Funding cuts
While the UK has continued to support UNRWA , and was the third largest overall donor in 2020 , the UK has so far pledged US$ 39.1
million for 2021, down from $64.1 million in 2020 and $76.2 million in 2019.
The Commissioner General of UNRWA argued this was a “direct impact” of the Government’s decision to reduce the UK aid budget from
0.7% to 0.5% of GNI.
The Commissioner General has said the agency was in an existential budget crisis due to an estimated $100-$120 million shortfall this
year, and because the current method of long-term funding was unsustainable. Other countries, such as the Gulf States , have also
made reduced commitments to the agency this year.
Current page URL
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103727634&mc_cid=3cc79528ae&mc_eid=a706a73261
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