Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - Road Map for Peace
The "road map" for
peace is a plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict proposed by
a "quartet" of international entities: the United States, the European
Union, Russia, and the United Nations. The principles of the plan were
first outlined by U.S. President George W. Bush in a speech on June 24,
2002, in which he called for an independent Palestinian state living
side by side with the Israeli state in peace. Bush was the first U.S.
President to explicitly call for such a Palestinian state.
Concept
In exchange for statehood, the road map requires the Palestinian
Authority to make democratic reforms and abandon the use of terrorism.
Israel, for its part, must support and accept the emergence of a
reformed Palestinian government and end settlement activity of the Gaza
Strip and West Bank as the Palestinian terrorist threat is removed.
Process
The road map comprises three goal-driven phases with the ultimate goal
of ending the conflict as early as 2005. However, as a performance-based
plan, progress will require and depend upon the good faith efforts of
the parties, and their compliance with each of the obligations outlined
below. Should the parties perform their obligations rapidly, progress
within and through the phases may come sooner than indicated in the
plan. Non-compliance with obligations will impede progress. Diplomats
from the quartet put the plan together, with amendments following
consultations with Israelis and Palestinians:
* Phase I (as early as May 2003): End to Palestinian violence;
Palestinian political reform; Israeli withdrawal and freeze on
settlement expansion; Palestinian elections
* Phase II (as early as June-Dec 2003): Creation of an independent
Palestinian state; international conference and international monitoring
of compliance with the road map
* Phase III (as early as 2004-2005): Second international conference;
permanent status agreement and end of conflict; agreement on final
borders, clarification of the highly controversial question of the fate
of Jerusalem, refugees and settlements; Arab states to agree to peace
deals with Israel
Start of implementation
The first step on the road map was the appointment of the first-ever
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) by
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The United States and Israel demanded
that Arafat be neutralized or sidelined in the road map process,
claiming that he had not done enough to stop Palestinian attacks against
Israelis while in charge. The United States refused to release the road
map until a Palestinian Prime Minister was in place. Abbas was appointed
on March 19, 2003, clearing the way for the release of the road map's
details on April 30, 2003.
On May 27, 2003, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stated that the
"occupation" of Palestinian territories was "a terrible thing for Israel
and for the Palestinians" and "can't continue endlessly." Sharon's
phraseology prompted shock from many in Israel, leading to a
clarification that by "occupation," Sharon meant control of millions of
Palestinian lives rather than actual physical occupation of land.
Nevertheless, outsiders believed that Sharon knew what he was saying
when he used the word "occupation" and was carefully offering the road
map for peace a chance, despite his traditionally hawkish views towards
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
President Bush visited the Middle East from June 2-4 2003 for two
summits in an attempt to push the road map as part of a seven-day
overseas trip through Europe and Russia. On June 2, Israel freed about
100 Palestinian political prisoners before the first summit in Egypt as
a sign of goodwill. In Egypt on June 3, President Bush met with the
leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Bahrain, and with Prime
Minister Abbas. The Arab leaders announced their support for the road
map and promised to work on cutting off funding to "terrorist groups."
On June 4, Bush headed to Jordan to meet directly with Sharon and Abbas.
Halt in implementation
After Bush left the region, a series of retaliatory attacks by Israelis
and Palestinians threatened to derail the road map. On June 10, Israeli
helicopters fired missiles at a car in Gaza in a failed attempt to
assassinate Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi. Two Palestinians were
killed in the attack. The next day, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew
himself up on an Israeli bus, killing 17 passengers and bystanders. In
the following few days, Israel continued its targeting of Hamas leaders
with new helicopter attacks.
On June 29, 2003, a tentative cease-fire was reached between the
Palestinian Authority and four major Palestinian groups. Islamic Jihad
and Hamas announced a joint three-month cease-fire, while Yasser
Arafat's Fatah faction declared a six-month truce. The cease-fire was
later joined by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
One condition of maintaining the truce is a demand for the release of
prisoners from Israeli jails, which is not part of the road map process.
Despite this, Israel withdrew troops from the northern Gaza Strip and
was discussing the transfer of territory to Palestinian control. The
apparent breakthrough coincided with a visit to the region by United
States National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.
On July 1, 2003, in Jerusalem, Sharon and Abbas held a first-ever
ceremonial opening to peace talks, televised live in both Arabic and
Hebrew. Both leaders said the violence had gone on too long and that
they were committed to the U.S.-led road map for peace. On July 2,
Israeli troops pulled out of Bethlehem and transferred control to
Palestinian security forces. The plan required that Palestinian police
take over from withdrawing Israeli forces and stop any anti-Israeli
militant attacks. At the same time, the U.S. announced a $30 million aid
package to the Palestinian Authority to help rebuild infrastructure
destroyed by Israeli incursions.
As of the end of 2003, the Palestinian Authority has not prevented
Palestinian terrorism, while Israel has not withdrawn from Palestinian
areas occupied since September 28, 2000 or frozen settlement expansion.
Thus the parties have not complied with the requirements of Phase I of
the road map and no further progress on the roadmap has been made and it
is thus currently effectively in limbo.
On February 13, 2004 the United States government decided that it may
endorse Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for a unilateral
withdrawal of most Israeli settlements from the Gaza Strip, noting that
"...negotiations were impossible because of Palestinian recalcitrance."
Revisions to the Road Map
On April 15, 2004, President George W. Bush proposed two changes to the
envisioned peace agreements. One change, which was since discarded, was
that Israel would retain major population centers located to the east of
the 1949 Armistice line: "In light of new realities on the ground,
including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is
unrealistic that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full
and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous
efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same
conclusion. It is realistic to expect that any final status agreement
will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes that
reflect these realities..." Second, that Palestinian refugees will not
enter Israel: "It seems clear that an agreed, just, fair and realistic
framework for a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue as part of any
final status agreement will need to be found through the establishment
of a Palestinian state and the settling of Palestinian refugees there
rather than Israel."
On May 8, 2004 in a interview with Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper, President
George W. Bush clarified the current situation regarding the Road Map
stating:
Well, 2005 may be hard, since 2005 is right around the corner. I readily
concede the date has slipped some, primarily because violence sprung up.
When I laid out the date of 2005, I believe it was around the time I
went to Aqaba, Jordan. It was a very meaningful moment, where former
Prime Minister Abu Mazen, myself, Prime Minister Sharon and His Majesty,
the King of Jordan, stood up and pledged to work together.
But we hit a bump in the road -- violence, as well as Abu Mazen being
replaced, which changed the dynamic. I don't want to make any excuses,
but nevertheless, I think the timetable of 2005 isn't as realistic as it
was two years ago. Nevertheless, I do think we ought to push hard as
fast as possible to get a state in place.
And I repeat to you, sir, that part of my frustrations were alleviated
with the Quartet making the statement it made the other day -- the
Quartet being the EU, Russia, United Nations and the United States,
working together. I think we can get the World Bank involved. But there
is a certain sense of responsibility that falls upon the Palestinians,
reform-minded Palestinians to step up and say, yes, we accept these
institutions necessary for a peaceful state to emerge.
On July 18, 2004, United States President George W. Bush stated that the
establishment of a Palestinian state by the end of 2005 is unlikely due
to instability and violence in the Palestinian Authority. (Le Figaro)
On 8 February 2005, the leaders of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the
Palestinian Authority came together at Sharm el-Sheikh for a summit
meeting at which they declared their continuing support for the Road
Map.
In his May 26, 2005 joint press conference with Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas in the Rose Garden, President Bush discarded his April
2004 revision to the Road Map's policy on Israeli land concession,
establishing the 1949 Armistice lines as the reference point for land
negotiations. Additionally, he called for "meaningful linkages" between
the West Bank and Gaza under Palestinian control:
Any final status agreement must be reached between the two parties, and
changes to the 1949 Armistice lines must be mutually agreed to. A viable
two-state solution must ensure contiguity of the West Bank, and a state
of scattered territories will not work. There must also be meaningful
linkages between the West Bank and Gaza. This is the position of the
United States today, it will be the position of the United States at the
time of final status negotiations.
In August 2005, the Israelis started their planned disengagement from
the Gaza Strip, removing all settlers from this area and from a small
portion of the West Bank. This was widely endorsed around the world and
the process, although unilateral on Israel's part, was co-ordinated with
the Palestinian Authority.
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_map_for_peace
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