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Special Report: Palestinians adopt Resolution 181 strategy

By Steve Rodan
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, May 26, 1999

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian officials preparing for final status talks say they need an opening position that will make Israel think twice about offering anything less than full withdrawal from the territories captured in the 1967 borders.

That position, they say, is the 1947 United Nations partition plan to divide the British mandate into a Jewish and Arab state. United Nations Security Council resolution 181 called for a Palestinian state that would make Jerusalem into an international city and give them most of the Galilee and Negev desert.

Over the last few months, the PLO and the Palestinian Authority have made resolution 181 their rallying cry. They have lobbied in the United Nations for the resolution to become the basis of final status talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

For months, the White House refused to deal with the issue while the State Department reiterated that the basis for the Oslo accords remains UN Security Council resolution 242, which calls for an Israeli withdrawal from territory in exchange for peace and recognized borders. On Sunday night, Vice President Al Gore stressed that resolution 181 would not be the basis for the final status talks.

Later, State Department peace coordinator Dennis Ross echoed Gore's assertion.

Palestinian officials said they view resolution 181 as an attempt to balance what they term are the Israeli advantages in the final status talks. They said Israel has created so many settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that the Jewish state might simply suggest that the territories be carved up into Israeli and Palestinian spheres of influence.

"Our state might end up as little strips of land broken up by settlements and Israeli military zones," a Palestinian official said. "This would deny us any chance to develop or create a proper society."

Resolution 181, the Palestinians said, could address the issue. For example, they said, the resolution could be used to insist that a Palestinian state link the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It could also be used as a lever to force Israel to evacuate Jewish settlements.

PA officials said resolution 181 could also be used to persuade skeptical and militant opposition groups to continue the peace process despite the expiration of the 1993 Oslo interim self-rule accords. Palestinian critics said the PA has done nothing to stop the expansion of Jewish settlements and the establishment of new outposts.

On Monday, Palestinian legislators called on the PA not to resume negotiations with Israel until it ends settlement expansion and removes the new outposts established over the last six months. The call came as PA-aligned activists plan a new protest campaign.

The pressure has convinced even the most moderate of Palestinian officials that they need a new diplomatic framework. "Resolution 181 is the legitimacy bestowed by the United Nations for the establishment of two states," PLO Executive Council secretary Mahmoud Abbas said. "But we accept that the solution be based on 242 and 338. It is no secret that the Oslo accords call for the implementation of 242 and 338. But you cannot deny 181 and say it doesn't exist. Because it is the basis for Israel's establishment."

Palestinian officials said their goal is to win enough Western support for resolution 181 to wield it as a credible threat during the final status negotiations. In March, the European Union sent a letter to Israel's Foreign Ministry saying that Jerusalem under the UN partition plan was to have become an international city.

Indeed, they said the likelihood is that resolution 181 will be the opening position of the Palestinians at the talks.

The main question is the United States. PA officials said they don't see the Clinton administration has presenting a major obstacle. They regard Gore's opposition to the resolution as part of his presidential election campaign.

Actually, they said, the resolution has been discussed in talks with the United States. In 1978, then-President Jimmy Carter raised the resolution as the basis for future talks with the Palestinians.

"From my point of view, if Israel refuses [to return to its pre-1967 borders], this will push us to 181," said Faisal Husseini, the PLO official responsible for Jerusalem in an interview in Newsweek. "There must be no unilateral activities like settlements and changes in Jerusalem."

Wednesday, May 26, 1999


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