Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas showed [U.S. President] Barack Obama what his negotiator called “a very ugly map” of recently constructed Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, amid concern peace talks may be about to fall apart.
His chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, who was present at the meeting between Abbas and Obama at the White House, said on Tuesday that the encounter had been “candid” and “difficult”.
Erekat said the Palestinian delegation showed the US president a map showing 10,589 housing settlement units he said were built on Palestinian-claimed territory since negotiations began less than eight months ago.
“We put a map to president Obama, showed him the extent of what happened since we began in July,” Erekat said, showing the same map to an audience at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington.
“It is a very ugly map. This was supposed to be land of the Palestinian state.” Describing how Israeli settlements weaken his hand in Palestinian negotiators, Erekat added: “I cannot weigh two kilos in Jericho and weigh 100 kilos in Washington, I really cannot.”
Monday’s meeting between Abbas and Obama came at a crucial point for the Palestinian-Israeli talks, which are being closely supervised by the US secretary of state John Kerry.
The negotiations, one of a handful of foreign policy priorities for Kerry, are scheduled to conclude on 29 April. By then, Washington had hoped to achieve a so-called “framework agreement” document.
“Contrary to what people expected—that we would come out of this meeting with an official American proposal, or document—it has not happened. We’re still at the stage of discussing ideas,” Erekat said.
Any such document would be expected to lay out basic principles, as a precursor to more in-depth negotiations. However after some optimism in 2013, close observers of the Middle East peace process are now casting doubt over whether the US can secure such an agreement, amid seemingly unbridgeable divisions between the two sides.
Erekat expressed some hope an agreement could be reached by the end of April, and veterans of previous peace negotiators caution that progress is often made toward the very end, when a deadline is looming.
The Palestinian negotiator spoke briefly on Monday following the White House meeting, but his candid remarks during a 45-minute discussion with an audience in Washington on Tuesday provided deeper insight into the extent of disagreement.
The key issues under discussion include crucial agreement on borders and territory, which would include land swaps; whether Jerusalem can be a shared capital for both states; and Israel’s security needs.
The Palestinian demand that refugees should have the right to return to their former homes is also being discussed, as well as Israel’s demand that the Palestinians recognise it as a Jewish state.
Erekat insisted Palestine would not interfere with how Israelis “want to define themselves”, but said it was unwarranted to insist Palestinians should recognise Israel as a specifically Jewish state.
“Israelis cannot deny that I have my own narrative, I have my religion, I have my story,” he said. “When they ask me to recognise the Jewish state, what they are doing is asking me to change my narrative.”
He also painted areas of wide difference regarding border difference and Israel’s insistence on keeping a military presence in the West Bank’s Jordan Valley.
Erekat also said there was “another date” ahead of April that could prove pivotal for the talks: a 29 March deadline, now less than two weeks away, by which Israel had agreed to release the fourth tranche of some 100 Palestinian prisoners.
“We paid for this,” Erekat said, referring to an agreement by the Palestinians, forged before the start of the negotiations, not to resort to the United Nations and other international institutions to seek recognition for their state. “I personally made a deal with Mr Kerry.”
“I hope [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu will honour this, because what I’m hearing from the Israeli ministers is not encouraging,” he said.
However, Erekat was complimentary [to] Obama and Kerry, saying he believed both were committed to reaching an agreement. He was particularly supportive of Kerry, whose personal drive observers on all sides credit with holding the talks together this long. “He knows me inside out,” Erekat said of Kerry, who he has known for 26 years. “I can’t play games with him.”
He added: “No-one benefits more from the success of Obama and Kerry than the Palestinians. No-one stands to lose more from failure that Palestinians.”
Photo: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets with President Obama. Source: Reuters.
