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PM Ariel Sharon lashed out against a final status agreement reached between Israeli left-wing politicians and senior Palestinian representatives, saying the so-called "Geneva Accord" would only undermine future peace negotiations.
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| By Ellis Shuman October 13, 2003 |
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Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lashed out on Sunday against a final status agreement reached between Israeli left-wing politicians and senior Palestinian representatives, saying the so-called "Geneva Accord" would only undermine future peace negotiations. The Left said the accords proved there was someone to talk to on the Palestinian side. A Palestinian minister denied that the Palestinians had waived their "right of return" in the talks.
Government ministers and right-wing politicians harshly criticized the agreement, reached after a year of talks led by former justice minister Yossi Beilin and former Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. Last week, Sharon charged that the Left was working with the Palestinian Authority behind the government's back.
Agriculture Minister Yossi Katz (Likud) said that a similar situation in the United States would be if the Democrats signed an agreement with Osama bin-Laden and the Taliban.
"This agreement only promises useless hopes," Sharon told a political rally Sunday night, Yediot Aharonot reported. "What right do members of the Left have to suggest steps that Israel can't, and will never take?"
According to media reports, Sharon labeled the "Geneva Accord" as the most historic, tragic mistake since the failed Oslo Accords. "I trust this government and it is responsible enough to ensure that these sort of dangers will not befall us again," he said, quoted by ynet. Sharon said the accord would undermine future peace negotiations by determining opening positions that the government would not be able to retract.
"There is a government in Israel, and it deals with such matters," said Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. "Everything else is virtual. I wouldn't have expected much else from those who brought us the Oslo Accords, for which foolishness we are still paying the price today, but therefore, we need to keep this in proportion."
Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau said he didn't understand how "Beilin and his friends, who were kicked out of power by the public twice, have the chutzpah to act behind the government's back at a time of war."
"Proof that there is someone to talk to"
Members of the Israeli delegation that met with the Palestinians over the weekend in Jordan to finalize the terms of the agreement included Beilin, MK Haim Oron (Meretz); MK Amram Mitzna (Labor); MK Avraham Burg (Labor); former MK Nehama Ronen; Brig.-Gen. (res.) Giora Inbar and author Amos Oz.
Burg said the talks proved that Israel had a partner on the Palestinian side. "In a situation where there is a vacuum, where there is no dialogue and only violence for three years now, we were told we had no one to talk to. Now it turns out, after two years of intensive efforts, that there is someone to talk to."
Burg said the agreements reached by the Israeli side were important. "I expect the prime minister and his ministers to relate to the plan," he said.
Mitzna said the agreement was a "cocktail" of all the understandings reached between the Israelis and the Palestinians at talks held in Oslo, at Camp David and in Taba.
No official document was issued after the talks held in Jordan, and an official signing ceremony is scheduled for Geneva on November 4, the anniversary of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination. According to Haaretz, the Swiss Foreign Ministry financed and mediated the negotiations.
Beilin and Abed Rabbo left Jordan after the talks for a meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. After that, Beilin is due to fly to Geneva to prepare the international conference that will coincide with the signing ceremony, Yediot Aharonot reported. In the meantime, the sides will try to enlist additional foreign support for the plan, and bring it for the attention and approval of the Israeli and Palestinian publics.
Channel One television reported on Sunday that Israeli citizens will receive a copy of the agreement in the mail. It was not revealed who would pay for the mass mailing
Palestinians: We didn't waive "right of return"
Israel Radio reported this morning that former Palestinian minister of prisoners' affairs, Hisham Abdel Razeq, who participated in the talks in Jordan, stated that in the unsigned draft understanding the Palestinians do not waive the right of return of refugees to their former homes within the Green Line.
PLC Member Kadura Fares, who also participated in the meetings, refused to say in a live interview broadcast this morning on Israel Radio that the Palestinians had agreed to forego the "right of return." He only would say, "We have a solution."
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