Dan Diker and Pinhas Inbari
Jerusalem Post, Oct. 9, 2009
“Fayad’s intention is to create facts on the ground that will garner major international support and lead to pressure to transform recognition of a de facto Palestinian state in 2011 into a de jure state in the event that the Palestinian Authority and Israel fail to reach a negotiated solution.”
In August, Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayad announced a unilateral plan to establish a de facto Palestinian state in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem following a two-year state-building process. Fayad’s plan is the first serious Palestinian outline of a state-building effort since the PLO was founded in 1964 and replaces the traditional PLO position of armed struggle to “liberate Palestine.”
The Fayad plan represents a bold anti-Fatah posture and is seen to pose a direct challenge to Fatah and its leader, Mahmoud Abbas. Fayad enjoys only limited political backing and his political rivals, such as Tawfiq Tirawi, Abu Maher Gneim and Mahmud al-Alul, who were recently elected to the new Fatah Central Committee, have already blasted his plans. Israel supports “bottom up” Palestinian state-building.
However, Israeli leaders have voiced legal and security-based concerns over Fayad’s intention that the PLO would unilaterally declare Palestinian statehood in 2011 based on the June 4, 1967, lines. The one-sided establishment of a Palestinian state would contravene a key provision of the Oslo Interim Agreement, according to which: “Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent-status agreement.”… [To read the full article, click here]
