Palestinian views of the peace process in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there are a variety of Palestinian views of the peace process. While some Palestinian leaders have said that the peace process is intended to achieve a permanent peace with the State of Israel, others have maintained that their goal is to destroy Israel.

Refugees

After the Israeli War of Independence, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East defined any person who lived in the British Mandate for Palestine for at least two years prior to the Israeli victory and "who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of [it] " as a Palestine refugee. [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Who is a Palestine refugee?
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/whois.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-07-01] The attitude of Palestinians toward the concept of "land for peace" depends largely on their individual social and economic status. Their social circumstances are largely affected by their inability to become citizens of the states in which they reside. [cite web
last = Bard
first = Mitchell
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Palestinian Refugees
work =
publisher = Jewish Virtual Library
date =
url = http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/refugees.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-07-01]

The most recent draft of the Palestinian constitution by the National Committee expresses a desire to adhere to international law as set out by the United Nations and to give all people within its borders human and civil rights. Many Palestinian refugees would like to return to their original homes (see right to return), often regardless of what state they would then find themselves in. [cite news
last = Sharp
first = Heather
coauthors =
title = Right of return: Palestinian dream
work =
pages =
publisher = BBC News
date = 2004-04-15
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3629923.stm
accessdate = 2008-07-01]

Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad

The stated goal of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is to conquer Israel and replace it with an Islamist state. [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Hamas Covenant
work =
publisher = The Avalon Project at Yale Law School.
date = 1988-08-18
url = http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/hamas.htm
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-07-01] Hamas undertook a ceasefire with Israel in August 2004. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad was unhappy with the ceasefire. [cite news
last = Benhorin
first = Yitzhak
coauthors =
title = Hamas: Ceasefire for return to 1967 border
work =
pages =
publisher = Yedioth Group
date =
url = http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3207845,00.html
accessdate = 2008-07-01] [cite news
last = Toameh
first = Khaled
coauthors =
title = Jihad ’unhappy’ with Hamas ceasefire
work =
pages =
publisher = Jerusalem Post
date = 2005-9-26
url = http://info.jpost.com/C005/Supplements/GazaUpheaval/n.04.html
accessdate = 2008-07-01] In September 2005, Hamas was criticized by Islamic Jihad for calling off rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza.

Yasser Arafat

Acceptance of Israel's right to exist in peace was the first of the PLO's obligations in the Oslo accords. In Yasser Arafat's September 9, 1993 letter to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, as part of Oslo I, Arafat stated that "The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security." [cite web
last = Arafat
first = Yasser
authorlink = Yasser Arafat
coauthors = Yitzhak Rabin
title = Israel-PLO Recognition: Exchange of Letters Between PM Rabin and Chairman Arafat
work =
publisher = US Department of State
date = 1993-09-09
url = http://www.state.gov/p/nea/rls/22579.htm
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-07-01] Electronic Intifada stated that Arafat has made several calls for an end to violence and lasting peace. [Citation
last = Abunimah
first = Ali
author-link =
last2 = Ibish
first2 = Hussein
author2-link =
title = Debunking 6 common Israeli myths
date = 04-14
year = 2002
url = http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article865.shtml
accessdate = 2008-07-01] Arafat had to deal with unfavourable views held by many Israelis, who saw him as merely using the peace process to extract short-term concessions. Arafat was also accused of viewing the peace process as a stepping stone on the road to the complete destruction of the state of Israel.

Palestine Liberation Organization

The PLO's 1968 policy statement, the Palestinian National Covenant, was renounced by the National Committee, which has now amended three drafts of its national constitution calling for peaceful sovereignty over the borders respected by international law.Fact|date=July 2008

Prominent Palestinians

When Sari Nusseibeh was the representative of the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem (circa 2000), he called for historic compromises by both Palestinians and Israelis in order to secure a permanent and lasting peace. For example, he stated that Palestinians must give up their claim of a right of return. With this concession, he argued, a true and lasting peace could emerge.Fact|date=January 2007

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on August 5, 2000, "Palestinians are no strangers to compromise. In the 1993 Oslo Accords, we agreed to recognize Israeli sovereignty over 78 percent of historic Palestine and to establish a Palestinian state on only 22 percent."Fact|date=January 2007 Rashid Abu Shbak, a senior PA security official declared, "The light which has shone over Gaza and Jericho [when the PA assumed control over those areas] will also reach the Negev and the Galilee [which constitute a large portion of pre-1967 Israel] ." [Yediot Ahronot, May 29, 1994]

The PA's Voice of Palestine broadcast a Friday prayer sermon by Yusuf Abu Sneineh, official preacher at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, over the radio. In it, he asserted, "The struggle we are waging is an ideological struggle and the question is: where has the Islamic land of Palestine gone? Where [are] Haifa and Jaffa, Lod and Ramle, Acre, Safed and Tiberias? Where is Hebron and Jerusalem?" [Voice of Palestine, May 23, 1997]

PA cabinet minister Abdul Aziz Shaheen told the official PA newspaper, "Al-Havat Al-Jadida", on January 4, 1998, "The Oslo accord was a preface for the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Authority will be a preface for the Palestinian state which, in its turn, will be a preface for the liberation of the entire Palestinian land."Fact|date=August 2008

Faisal Husseini, former Palestinian Authority Minister for Jerusalem, compared the al-Aqsa intifada following the Oslo peace process to the tactic of coming out of the Trojan Horse used by the Greeks in the myth of the Trojan War. [cite conference
first = Moshe
last = Yaalon
authorlink = Moshe Yaalon
coauthors =
title = The Changing Paradigm of Israeli-Palestinian Relations in the Shadow of Iran and the War against Hizballah

booktitle =
pages =
publisher = Washington Institute for Near East Policy
date = 2007-01-22
location =
url = http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC07.php?CID=326
doi =
id =
accessdate = 2008-07-01]

Maps and textbooks

A number of Palestinian maps label all of the State of Israel, as well as the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as "Palestine". [ [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/palmatoc1.html "Palestinian Maps Omitting Israel."] "Jewish Virtual Library". 3 September 2008.] Such maps appear on PA Television, in the offices of PA officials, in textbooks used in PA schools, and on the shoulder patches of PA police officers. In 1988, when the PLO applied for admission to the World Health Organization, it used the map of all of Israel in its application papers.

References

External links

* [http://www.bridgesforpeace.com/publications/dispatch/betweenthelines/Article-27.html The Late Faisal Husseini: Oslo Is A Trojan Horse] - written by Aharon Amir (2001)