Peace plan – minus the Palestinians
Another Israel/Palestine ‘peace plan’ has been added to the long list of diplomatic dances that have come and gone in recent years, and this time it is a reheated version of the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002. At an Arab League summit in Riyadh in March, the organisation’s members unanimously offered Israel peaceful, normalised relations, should the land occupied since 1967 be returned.
Yet despite all the fanfare, and self-congratulatory talk of an “historic moment”, this proposal shares the same flaw as those that have come before – it is being offered on behalf of those at the root of the conflict, the Palestinians. The Palestinians, who, from the refugees exiled since 1948 to those living in the Occupied Territories, are still not ‘permitted’ to speak for themselves. Read more
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