Peace process on the rocks
The future of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process hangs in the balance, after Israel’s decision not to go ahead with a planned release of terrorists from its jails.
Israel was scheduled to release 26 prisoners last weekend, as the fourth release in the context of the peace talks. Some of the prisoners slated for releases were Palestinians and, for the first time, some were Israeli Arabs.
The Palestinian Authority is saying that failure to perform the release could lead to the end of negotiations. And leading Palestinian analyst Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, thinks it is serous. “I think the consequences could be disastrous,” he told The AJN. “This could mean the end of the current phase of Israeli-Palestinian relations that has prevailed since 2009 – this could mean the end to diplomacy.”
Jerusalem halted the release, frustrated at what it considers Palestinian lethargy during talks and believing that talks haven’t been conducted in good faith. Israel feared that it would release the prisoners and Palestinians would walk away from the negotiating table when the talks reach their scheduled end in a month.
The Israeli pullback was also influenced by domestic politics. The right-wing threatened to destabilise the government if the release went ahead. Deputy Defence Minister Danny Danon, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, even threatened to resign.
“It is now clear to even those who wear rose-coloured glasses that the Palestinians were cynically using our goodwill to ensure the release of their terrorists while continuing with their plan to establish the state of Palestine and replace the Jewish State of Israel,” Danon commented to The AJN.
He said that he informed Netanyahu that he would “not be able to continue in my position as Deputy Defence Minister in a government that releases terrorists for the right to sit at the negotiating table with the Palestinians”.
Palestinian official Jibril Rajoub, a member of Fatah’s central committee, claimed that Israel’s decision was not only insulting to the Palestinians, but was a “slap in the face of the US administration and its efforts”.
Now, the US is reportedly considering the possibility of releasing Jonathan Pollard, who it is holding in prison for spying for Israel, as an incentive for Israeli compliance with its wishes for the peace process.
In the Israeli opposition, politicians are calling for the government to avert the crisis by wriggling out of the sensitive demand for the prisoner release, offering a settlement freeze instead. Labour Knesset member Hilik Bar, who coordinated a parliamentarians’ letter to the government calling for this course of action, told The AJN that he thinks it would be a “win-win solution for both Bibi and the Palestinians”.
NATHAN JEFFAY
comments