There is a choice!

There is a solution!

By Gush Shalom

We all long for an end to the conflict, for the termination of the bloodshed and a life in peace, in a state of which we can be proud.

We will not be able to realize this by means of "reassembling", "disengagement", the Apartheid Wall, the unilateral fixing of the "permanent borders" (in agreement with the settlers) and all the other patent medicines and fata morganas. All these have already been tried and have already failed.

There is only one real way:

1. The elected government of Israel will invite the elected government of Palestine to direct negotiations, on the basis of equality and mutual respect, for the implementation of the "two states for two peoples" solution.

2. The opening of the negotiations will constitute the mutual recognition of the right to existence of the two states within the borders that will be determined by the negotiations.

3. Neither of the two parties will be asked to give up its religious and spiritual affinity with all the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, irrespective of the division of political sovereignty.

4. The permanent borders between the two states will be based on the Green Line. The final route will be fixed by negotiation, with the possibility of agreed exchanges of territory.

5. The Jewish quarters of Jerusalem, together with the Western Wall, will belong to Israel. The Arab quarters of Jerusalem, together with the compound of the mosques, will belong to Palestine.

6. All the other questions, such as security arrangements, refugees, economic relations and water, will be resolved by mutual agreement.

7. The negotiations will be completed in no more than three years.

8. An armistice (hudnah) will come into force for the duration of the negotiations. Each of the two governments will be responsible for a complete cessation of violence by its military forces as well as by all armed factions, groups and individuals. There will be no building activity in the existing settlements, nor will new settlements be set up.

9. A neutral international committee, with the participation of international personalities acceptable to both sides, will oversee the implementation.

We call upon all the voters of the peace camp to vote for a party that is close to these principles.

A critique of Gush Shalom's political programme

By Henry Lowi

Henry Lowi, a Jewish peace activist from Toronto, Canada, notes that Gush Shalom has not updated its political "choice" since the Oslo accords of 1993 and adds the following comments:

1. Gush Shalom does not demand the unconditional end to the Israeli occupation. Presumably, peace can be negotiated while the occupation continues.

2. Gush Shalom does not demand the release of political prisoners. Presumably, peace can be negotiated while the political leaders of major Palestinian political organizations are behind bars, if they have not already been murdered.

3. Gush Shalom does not demand Israeli recognition of the right of return of the refugees. Presumably, peace can be negotiated while the refugees rot in the camps, and remain in exile.

4. Gush Shalom does not object to secret diplomacy. Presumably, Gush Shalom has not learned the lessons of Madrid, Oslo, Wye and Camp David, and believes that negotiators representing the Palestinian elite and the Israeli elite (and "international personalities") are capable of doing a decent job far from the scrutiny of the oppressed workers, farmers and refugees.

5. Gush Shalom appoints the captive Palestinian National Authority ("government of Palestine") as sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, with authority to recognize Israel, agree on "permanent borders", ignore the oppression of the Palestinian citizens of Israel and compromise the rights of the refugees.

6. Gush Shalom upholds the "two states for two peoples" programme at a time when this represents the "international consensus" only of the Bush administration and its European allies, and has been shown to be a pipe-dream, and a fig-leaf for continued Israeli domination of all of Palestine and continued Israeli oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian people.

7. For Gush Shalom, agreement on the borders of "two states for two peoples" takes priority over addressing the elementary conditions of life of the oppressed people of this country - "security arrangements, refugees, economic relations and water". One might add: "employment".

8. Gush Shalom gives legitimacy to the "Green Line", which is the Armistice Line that recorded the military positions on a certain day in 1949, 57 years ago. That Armistice Line was wiped out by the IDF [Israeli army] in the Six Day War, 39 years ago, just as the IDF had wiped out the UN's Partition Line previously. Why the Armistice Line should be a border - and not the Partition Line of 1947, or the Mandate borders, or any other - no one has ever explained rationally. The Israelis and Palestinians, who will have to reconcile and coexist, cannot worship any of those artificial "borders".

9. The country is an economic unit, and can become an integral part of the Arab East, or remain hostile to it. The country's people are intermixed, it is saddled with a racist militarist regime that endangers the people and that must be dismantled and replaced by a democratic regime that treats Jews and Arabs and all other human beings as equals.