As it is explained in the
program of the movement HaMetziut, we do not consider the “peace process” as the
main priority of the Israeli politics. Yet, as a serious political party,
HaMetziut has a clear position regarding the peace with the Palestinian people
and with the Arab states.
The Israeli Right
correctly points out that at present there is no Palestinian leader willing to
make peace with Israel
and/or being able to implement such an agreement in practice. It is also true
that most of the concessions to the Palestinians, made by Israel in the last two decades, have brought
nothing but more violence and suffering as to the citizens of Israel, as to
the Palestinians themselves.
Yet, the Israeli Right has
offered no realistic solutions for the problem, and even continues to aggravate
it by the unreasonable expansion of the settlements.
The Israeli Left has been
recycling the same ideas for the last twenty years: they claim that making
peace with the Palestinian people and the Arab states is a question of making
big enough concessions. The most extreme ones believe that with big enough
concessions the peace can be achieved immediately (“Peace Now”).
The most disgusting aspect of this
attitude to the peace is the attempts to disenfranchise a significant part of
the Israeli population – the settlers – from their basic citizenship rights,
encouraging to reduce the protection, economic assistance and freedom guaranteed
by the state to all its citizens.
HaMetsiut acknowledges the Reality:
the Peace, that has eluded Israel
during the twenty years of the peace process, will not come now. Neither will
it come tomorrow. It may take twenty more years to achieve it. Yet, we cannot
wait till it comes on its own – instead of making the situation worse, Israel should
help create the conditions for peace and prepare itself for various scenarios
under which the peace settlement may occur.
Our position is:
- Peace cannot come now,
but the status quo will eventually end. Therefore it is obligation of
the Israeli government to prepare necessary groundwork for peace, and to carry
out policies that lay the groundwork for the peace settlement with the
Palestinian people and the Arab States.
- Israel needs
real peace rather than a peace agreement. Such peace agreement can be
achieved only when there is a Palestinian leader with enough authority to
implement such an agreement.
- They key to the peace is
fulfilling the right of the Palestinian people for the self-determination.
It must be recognized that more than half of the Palestinian people live beyond
the territory controlled by Israel.
Thus, the Palestinian independence cannot be achieved by means of only Israel’s concessions, but requires active
participation of the Arab states with significant Palestinian population (Lebanon, Syria,
Jordan).
The attempts to put full
responsibility for the resolution of the Palestinian problem at Israel’s feet
amount to trying to wash hands of the Palestinian suffering (when such attempts
come from within Israel) and to shift the focus onto Israel from other problems
and conflicts in the Middle East (when such attempts come from abroad).
Israel
should confront Western and Arab leaders with the fact that economically viable
and nationally complete Palestinian state cannot exist within the territories
consisting of the West Bank and Gaza.
- HaMetziut will propose a
series of economic and political measures to be carried out within the next
10-20 years with the aim to make peace agreement more likely. This
laying of Groundwork for Peace will include:
a. Restraining settlement
activity
b. Encouraging economic and
cultural development of the Palestinian people, as well as their economic and
cultural ties with Israel.
c. Consistently promoting
democratization in the Middle East with understanding that governments
responsible to their people will be more willing to conclude peace agreement
with Israel.
d. Supporting the transformation
of the political system in Jordan
with the goal that the Palestinian people living there would have proportional
and fair representation in the government, and having in mind eventual
re-unification of the Palestinian people living in Jordan
and the West Bank.
e. Acknowledging the right of
people to live in the place to which they experience significant attachment,
such as a place where they were born and spent their childhood, or the place
where they have spent significant part of their life. In particular, we will
lobby the United Nations for extending the full citizenship rights for the
descendants of the Palestinian refugees currently living in Syria and Lebanon. This is consistent with
our intention to keep under Israeli control the territories in which Israeli
citizens have been living for already more than one generation.
