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| By Associated Press October 10, 2005 |
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The international roadmap for peace between Israelis and Palestinians is not being taken seriously by any of those involved in it, a peace activist and former Israeli minister said Monday.
Yossi Beilin, one of the creators of the Geneva Accord, an informal peace plan, also said Israel's withdrawal from Gaza was valuable only if more measures were implemented to continue the peace process.
"The roadmap for Israeli-Palestinian peace was suggested with the best of intentions, but became a kind of trap for all of us," Beilin, a former justice minister said, adding that it was outdated and its implementation never really began.
"Everybody is happy because there is a roadmap but nobody is taking it seriously and we are paying the price, the two peoples," said Beilin, during a visit to Budapest with Yasser Abed Rabbo, a former Palestinian minister. "The roadmap is just lip service for the American president, for (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon, for (Palestinian leader) Abu Mazen, for the Europeans."
Abed Rabbo said the two men were seeking to widen international support for the Geneva Accord, launched in 2003, and hoping to spur talks between the two governments.
"The main aim is to materialize the idea of partnership, to bring the two governments to the negotiating table to discuss all issues ... and reach a comprehensive solution," Abed Rabbo said.
The Geneva Accord envisions a Palestinian state roughly on the borders before the 1967 Middle East war, with most Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip dismantled. It divides sovereignty of Jerusalem, but avoids a large-scale return to Israel by Palestinians who fled or were driven out during the 1948-49 war that followed Israel's creation.
The roadmap envisioning an end to Palestinian-Israeli violence and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state was drafted by the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia.
Beilin said the Gaza withdrawal could backfire if Israel failed to take further steps.
"If the withdrawal from Gaza is continued by other steps toward peace and agreements, then it is a very important precedent," Beilin said. "If it is followed by nothing and 'Gaza first' becomes 'Gaza last,' the security situation after the withdrawal is going to be much worse than before that."
"Gaza will become a kind of big jail for the Palestinians," Beilin added. "They will understand that Sharon did it only to get rid of Gaza ... and to build in the West Bank and as a result the situation will be worse."
Beilin, who said there was support for the Geneva Accord among 40 percent of Israelis and Palestinians, hoped political parties would adopt their plan ahead of the 2006 elections in Israel.
"I would like to see an Israeli election over the question of a permanent agreement versus an interim or a unilateral one," Beilin said. "This might be a very important step forward."
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