December 1, 2003
Israeli opposition politicians and prominent Palestinians launched an alternative Middle East peace plan that was hailed as the most "promising" basis for ending decades of violence in the region. About 700 people attended the glitzy ceremony marking the formal launch of the Geneva Initiative, presided over by Hollywood movie star Richard Dreyfuss and attended by other celebrities and former leaders. "It's unlikely that we shall ever see a more promising foundation for peace," former US president Jimmy Carter said as the public ceremony got under way at a conference center near UN headquarters. "The only alternative to this initiative is sustained and permanent violence," he added.
The initiative, drawn up in great secrecy by leading Palestinian and Israeli politicians and intellectuals, contains proposals for resolving some of the thorniest problems in the decades-long conflict such as the creation of a Palestinian state and the status of Jerusalem. But it has been rejected outright by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who denounced it as "dangerous", and has won only half-hearted support from the Palestinian Authority.
The proposals include an Israeli withdrawal from much of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in return for the Palestinians waiving the right of return for 3.8 million Palestinian refugees ousted from their homes since the creation of Israel in 1948. The 50-page document details the creation of a Palestinian state encompassing 97.5 percent of the West Bank with shared sovereignty over the city of Jerusalem, which contains some of the holiest sites in both Judaism and Islam.
Former Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, who along with ex-Israeli justice minister Yossi Beilin was among the main architects of the plan, said that it was "the first step in a long march" towards peace. "This proves that a majority among Palestinians and Israelis want peace," Rabbo said. Rabbo dismissed suggestions that the peace plan was unrealistic, describing it as a "real historical compromise with real details solutions to all issues."
Israeli backers also played down staunch opposition from Sharon in recent weeks, claiming that a broad range of civil society was present in Geneva to show support for the initiative. "If the government is not here for the people, then let the people be here for the people," Abraham Burg, former speaker of the Israeli parliament said.
The plan has no official international backing, but has drawn European support and encouragement from US Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as a statement of support issued Monday by 58 former leaders. In an appeal published in the International Herald Tribune, the signatories including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and former UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali called on the United States and other key players in the Middle East to build on the momentum of the Geneva Initiative, saying that the conflict "has taken far too great a toll already."
President Hosni Mubarak said in Cairo that he supported any initiative "that would lead to peace and stability in this part of the world" while the Arab League played down its importance, saying that the focus should be on signed documents. The peace plan also appears to have prompted a sudden flurry of diplomatic activity in the Middle East, with Washington's top envoy William Burns in Israel for a series of meetings with officials.
Israel reiterated its criticism of the blueprint on Monday, saying that it undermined the current focus on the US-backed roadmap for peace. "The Geneva Initiative does not fit into the roadmap, therefore the Israeli government considers the roadmap as the only basis for talks with the Palestinians," Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said in Jerusalem.
The event featured a series of speeches, including support from Carter, who helped broker the Camp David accords that led to the historic 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Thousands of Palestinians staged protests in Gaza and the West Bank against the plan, branding it as "treason" and a "black day in the history of the Palestinian people". The initiative has been rejected by the main Palestinian factions with groups such as Hamas particularly angered by its implicit renunciation of the right of return for Palestinians.
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