No progress reached, Israelis cast inaccurate reports
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 7/27/1998

Palestinian officials played down the significance of Israeli reports on progress in the talks between the Palestine National Authority and Israel. According to Palestinian chief negotiator Dr. Saeb Erekat, the statements seemed to have been meant to help Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his domestic policy where he was facing a no-confidence motion by opposition parties.

"One day, the Israelis talk of progress, the next day they speak of an impasse. Once they say they accept some of our demands and once they present demands of their own. It is all one major part of a big maneuver that Netanyahu and his top aides are using to safely pass this week without having their government toppled by the no-confidence motions," said Erekat. He reiterated the Palestinian position that expects Israel to at least implement the US ideas for a 13 percent withdrawal of Israeli troops in the West Bank.

Palestinian official sources avoided a clear-cut response to reports that talks are to be resumed with Israel this week. Even the meeting Monday night between Palestinian senior negotiator Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and police minister Avigdor Kahalani was planned to discuss issues pertinent to daily life of Palestinians but not to the peace talks between the two sides. The Abu Mazen-Kahalani meeting, according to the Palestinians, could not be considered a resumption of talks but a meeting to discuss issues affecting the daily lives of the Palestinians such as the prisoners file and police roadblocks.

However, should talks be resumed, Palestinian officials said they planned to ask Israel for clarification of the Israeli proposal to withdraw from 10 percent of the West Bank lands, in addition to the 3 percent of lands that are due to be transferred into nature reserves. The Palestinians will need a defined clarification on Israel's interpretation of "nature reserve," one source said and added that both sides have agreed that the three percent would form one territorial contiguity in the desert areas close to Bethlehem.

According to various reports, both the Palestinian government and Israel agreed to share security control over this proposed three percent nature reserve, which obtained the new definition of Area D, as opposed to areas A, B, and C that were agreed upon in the Oslo Accords. Should the agreement be finalized between the two sides, Area D will obtain a status similar to that of Area B where Israel maintains security control while the Palestinian government is in charge of civil affairs and the domestic police force.

Israel's leading dailies on Monday claimed that a certain measure of progress was achieved in the secret talks between Abu Mazen and Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai on Saturday night. But Erekat denied there was any progress achieved in those talks and said the Israelis are yet to come through with positive responses to the US ideas.

Another issue that Israel insists to be included in any upcoming agreement on the second phase withdrawal is the question of the Palestine National Charter. The Palestinian government insists that the clauses in the charter that contravened the Oslo Agreement had already been canceled in April 1996 session the Palestine National Council held in Gaza. Besides, ex-chairman of the opposition Labor Party Shimon Peres showed party members Monday afternoon a letter he brought from President Arafat confirming that all controversial clauses in the charter had been canceled.

But Israeli jurists who sounded unconvinced by the Palestinian clarifications are due to examine whether the PLO Executive committee is authorized to decide on the annulment of the charter or whether the PNC should be convened again for this purpose. Palestinian officials in the past suggested the Executive Committee would meet to reiterate the changes of the charter instead of convening the PNC, but Israel has yet to accept this offer.

Meanwhile, Jewish settlement activities in the Occupied Territories seem to have been totally uninterrupted with the political track. The Israeli Bureau of Statistics maintained that the number of housing units built in the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza during the first quarter of 1998 increased by 100 percent compared with the same period last year. The bureau report showed that 730 housing units were built in the Occupied Territories during the first quarter of 1998 while in the same period last year the number of those units was 310.

The Housing Mnistry claimed the increase was a result of natural growth in the existing settlements, but Peace Now movement said the figures show that Netanyahu and his government are not concerned about peace at all. The movement's spokeswoman, Hagit Yaari, said the Israeli government "lies to the whole world when it says that the increase is due to natural growth, because there are many vacant units in those settlements."

Previous Stories:
  No breakthrough worries Israel as next week's conference may isolate Israel   (7/23/1998)
  No progress in Palestine-Israel talks, political reshuffle in Israel expected   (7/22/1998)
  Israel offers withdrawal of only 10% from West Bank   (7/21/1998)

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