“This peace process is no more… This is an EX-PEACE PROCESS!”
Stuart Littlewood / My Catbird Seat
JEFF HALPER (ICAHD)
Jeff Halper now focuses on Palestine’s Big Chance: its application for statehood
In an article Mobilizing for September? Jeff Halper, Director of The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), shares his thoughts on the collective action that must be taken between now and when the window of opportunity for applying for statehood opens in September.
As he rightly says, the Palestinian Authority over the years “has failed to mobilize its greatest resource and ally, grassroots activists the world over”. It also needs to provide them with guidance and leadership. “We have no idea where the PA is heading.”
So it has been left to the likes of Halper to explain the Palestinians’ options in September and inject some semblance of debate into the situation facing supporters, activists and that shabby excuse for a government in Ramallah that’s more of a hindrance than a help.
To start with… no more pointless talk of negotiations. “The interminable peace process, says Halper, “serves one purpose only: prolonging the Israeli Occupation.”
Many would go further and say that the US, Britain and the EU have connived with Israel to prolong the Occupation to the point where they hope it will become irreversible. Washington and London won’t take kindly to a declaration of statehood unless it’s made clear to them by a coming-together of civil society across the world that there’ll be trouble, with a capital T, if they don’t do the right thing by the Palestinians and curb the twisted ambition of their Zionist bosom-pals.
Although Clinton and Hague still chirp about “re-starting talks”, the idea is as dead as the parrot in the famous Monty Python sketch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuW6tQ0218, which might have been written specially for the Quartet ‘peace boutique’ and its gormless salesman…
Palestinian Authority: I wish to complain about this peace process what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique.
Quartet’s Gormless Salesman: What’s wrong with it?
PA: I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it, my lad. ‘E’s dead, that’s what’s wrong with it!
QGS: No, no, it’s resting.
PA: Look, matey, I know a dead peace process when I see one, and I’m looking at one right now…
And so on… If you’re a ‘Python’ fan you’ll know the ending says it all.
PA: ‘E’s passed on! This peace process is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s
expired and gone to meet ‘is maker!
‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘im to
the perch ‘e’d be pushing up the daisies!
‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s kicked the bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil!!
THIS IS AN EX-PEACE PROCESS!!
(pause)
QGS: Well, I’d better replace it, then…
No, please don’t. This is where we finally close the chapter on ‘Pointless Talks’ and fast-forward to ‘Law and Justice’. Whatever Mr Obama, Mrs Clinton, Mr Cameron, Mr Hague, et al may think, applying for statehood is now the only game in town.
“Ideally,” says Jeff Halper, “the response of the other three Quartet members [referring to the United Nations, the European Union and Russia] would be to formally declare the ‘peace process’ ended, opening the way to the only other alternative, the acceptance in September of Palestine as a member state of the UN within recognized borders… it is crucial that the Palestinians declare it, making it clear that it was Israel that led to the collapse of negotiations. Only in that way can they prepare the ground for an independent state in September.”
In his analysis Halper paints two scenarios:
The first has a Palestinian state within already-recognised borders – the 1949 armistice lines – accepted as a full member of the UN. There would be no need to negotiate territorial swaps, ‘adjust’ borders to accommodate Israeli settlements or accept exaggerated Israeli security demands.
Admission to the UN, says Halper, “would also end all ambiguity over occupation itself, which has allowed Israel to avoid accountability under international law… East Jerusalem is Palestinian. Period.
The Israeli presence in sovereign Palestinian territory is illegal. Period.
Continued occupation by Israel, which would now clearly violate the most fundamental principle of sovereignty upon which the entire international system is based, would become intolerable. This would activate international sanctions on Israel that could not be prevented by the US and Europe.”
And the settlements? “Easy. All settlements built on private Palestinian land must be removed.
As to the others, including the large settlement blocs, the Palestinian government could simply say: you, the settlers, are welcome to stay in your homes, but you will be living in Palestine, subject to Palestinian laws, with Palestinians free to purchase homes in your communities.”
Furthermore, by taking its place formally among the member states of the UN, Palestine would have full-ranking ambassadors in the capitals of the world and enjoy unmediated access to all the instruments of the international community: the right to introduce UN resolutions, to participate fully in international conferences and to pursue the application of international law against the Israelis, including access to the International Court of Justice.
You can imagine the steam coming out of AIPAC’s ears at the very thought of the international community actually doing the right thing…
And how would all this come about? The Palestinian ‘leadership’, assuming that anything worthy of the name and remotely credible can be brought into being by September, submits an application to the Secretary-General, confirming its obligations to the UN Charter. The application then goes to the Security Council. If it gains support from nine of the 15 Security Council members and all the five permanent members, a recommendation for admission goes to the General Assembly, which must approve it by a two-thirds majority.
Assuming the US vote in the Security Council is a “yes” or an abstention, the Palestinian application would receive near unanimous approval, according to Halper, But he adds: “The chances of the US actually allowing a Palestinian state to emerge in September is minimal, if only because Congress would not allow it.”
The second scenario sees Palestine’s application failing. It does not become a member state of the UN – at least, not straightaway. If the Security Council declines to recommend Palestine for membership, the General Assembly may send the application back to the Council asking it to reconsider. The American veto might then become an abstention, but all this would take time and the Palestinians would be unlikely to get a result in September. After that we’re into the tedious run-up to the 2012 US election.
Halper seems to feel the Palestinian Authority might then crumble and collapse, forcing Israel to re-occupy, which it could not afford to do even with all its US subsidies. “Merely the threat of that would inflame the entire Muslim world – and beyond. Even the threat of such a thing happening would force the hand of the international community. Whether the US would be pulled into joining international efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once and for all or whether the rest of the world would simply pass it by is an open question, but the status quo would become intolerable.”
The present deadlock, if not resolved by the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state with recognized borders, “will lead to collapse and chaos”. Halper expects the demise of the exhausted ‘peace process’ to provide new openings and possibilities, a new logic and strategy, and even introduce new players.
Members of the pro-Palestine movement, inside and outside the Occupied Territories, owe thanks to this courageous Jewish friend, Jeff Halper, for his clear thinking. Meanwhile much needs to be done to prepare the ground for the Palestinians’ Big Chance in September, little more than 100 days away.
There are many pea-brains eager to block the Palestinians’ bid for freedom. And they don’t all reside in the White House. Just a few weeks ago the British prime minister, David Cameron, was saying: “I want to be clear, we will always support Israel. For example, when Iran flouts its international obligations Britain is and will remain at the forefront of the international community in ratcheting up the pressure with tough sanctions. We will not stand by and allow Iran to cast a nuclear shadow over Israel or the wider region.” http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/46044/david-camerons-speech-cst
It’s perfectly OK, apparently, for Israel to flout its international obligations and cast a nuclear shadow over the region and even Europe. People who are capable of such daft and dangerous pronouncements may stop at nothing to make Israel’s enemy Britain’s enemy. They’ve already done it with the Hamas government and with Hezbollah, as well as Iran, although none is a threat to Britain. That’s the mentality we’re up against.
So, When will they learn ?
Stuart Littlewood Photographer and Journalist
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One of the active sayanims in Australia who emerged from the subterranean headquarters in Melbourne to do his propaganda duties responded to a worthy Professor who had stated “that a BDS would be more successful than the various failed international peace initiatives in promoting a viable two-state solution”.
A simple statement and which has now been borne out by events.
So the BDS was most successful in the role it was able to play in the education of the apathetic.
Note the environment for the last US-inspired Israeli ‘peace’ charade by having the US as a “friendly broker” being just pure farce, middle east theatre, laughable if it wasn’t so serious.
There we saw Mubarak, US stooge, corrupt dictator, US rendition provider, hand in hand with the evil Netanyahu and as a ‘friendly broker’, Hilary Clinton, US Senator for New York. Can anyone imagine a more devious collection of individuals all facing off Mahmoud Abbas for Palestine, so naive as to think that there was any intention to negotiate anything at any time. And so it has always been and will always be as the name of the game is the total ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the occupation of all the Palestinian land, well under way with a reliable US veto at Israel’s beck and call.
The only Israeli objective since day one, now known by the whole world.
Now, one would expect that this would be seen by most fair-minded Australians, with the exception of the compromised current Prime MInister Gillard to be somewhat unfair, so when the recent BDS was amplified by any discussion and action, successful or otherwise, it added a level of understanding to many thousands of Australians, who, through the Jewish ownership of the movie industry may have thought that Jews were funny little fellows who talked strangely but were loveable and quaint.
Not so. Some Jews perhaps, but a Zionist, never. They have proven themselves to be hateful, deceitful and inhumane. Their actions over the years have shown that clearly.
That’s the real value of such BDS actions wherever they occur, on the increase hopefully and in other parts of the globe.
This is an undisputed fact everywhere but in the Murdoch press.
So the BDS was most successful in the role it was able to play in the education of the sleepy Australian public on the evils of Zionism, everywhere.
A programmed sayanim wrote that “BDS is about ethnic demonization, not ending the occupation” who by using the word “occupation” seemed to feel no anguish over such a word. Whereas for the rest of the world, occupation has frightening connotations. It reminds people of World War II, France, Belgium, Holland, Eastern Europe, the Balkans under Germany and as well, China under the brutal Japanese with the rape of Nanking.
The rape of Palestine should be on everyone’s minds, all but the occupiers, that is. They have shown over forty years that they don’t give a damn for humanity.
Stuart Littlewood’s book ‘Radio Free Palestine’, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under ‘occupation’, tells it all, clearly. His article today shows options, none of which should ever include the devious Clinton, a disgrace to her country, the world, with not a drop of credibility…. a tool of Zionism.