Undisclosed details of Palestine draft resolution cause dismay

Late on Wednesday night, Jordan handed over a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) calling for an end to Israeli occupation in Palestinian territories by 2017.

This was done on behalf of the Palestinian leadership, and in consultation with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president and chairman of the PLO, who said Palestinian leaderss had been there throughout the preparation of the draft and that it "maintained the credibility" of the leadership.

The draft is a manoeuvre to prevent Palestinians going to the ICC ... nothing has changed. - Khalida Jarrar

Hours later, leading figures in the PA, along with other Palestinian factions and parties said they had not seen the draft, and voiced their reservations about some of the text’s main points after finally obtaining a draft through an English-language media outlet.

End to occupation?

Abbas said that the draft resolution asserted a two-state solution to the ongoing Palestine-Israel crisis, based on 1967 borders.

Jerusalem would become a joint capital of the Israeli and Palestinian states.

The resolution would ensure that East Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Palestine", and there would be a "just" and "agreed upon" solution to the Palestinian refugees issue in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative and the UN General Assembly resolution 194, Abbas clarified.

Abbas added that the resolution also calls for a complete halt to all settlement activities, which would include security arrangements that "guarantee the presence of a third international party".

The 2017 deadline is critical to the text. Palestinian foreign minister, Riyadh al–Malki, says, "The draft stipulates an essential and substantial point, namely setting a timeframe to end the occupation by the end of 2017, allowing for a negotiating period of 12 months, followed by two years to dismantle the infrastructure of the occupation."

If the resolution is passed, all of this would need to be tied up within two years.

Points of contention

The text has proven controversial and disagreements have emerged between the Jordanian and Palestinian sides.

Speaking to al-Araby al-Jadeed a source said this came about when Palestinian officials refused to amend suggestions put forward by France after two rounds of negotiations with Jordan and other Arab states involved in the deal.

Arab states deemed it necessary to adopt the French proposal, to benefit from recent signs of European solidarity with the Palestinian cause and the best way to push through key Palestinian demands without the threat of a US veto.

"The return to negotiations by Palestinians and Israelis within a timeframe and international guarantees represent the essence of the draft resolution," the source said.

"The aim is not to have an international resolution that will not be implemented, as has happened with many other resolutions about the Palestinian question before, but to get a resolution which commits international parties to pressure the Israeli side to implement it."

He affirmed that Jordan does not seek to abort or delay the Palestinian UN proposal, but they are taking into account "political reality" so that when the resolution is submitted it is not crippled by a no vote.

No to veto

Speaking on Palestinian radio on Thursday, Malki said that he does not believe that the US will block the resolution.

"When we met the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, he did not say the United States will use its veto. He said we understand what you need and we want to avoid using the veto because that would harm you and would hurt us as well," Malki said.

According to the minister, Kerry said that he wants to work with the Palestinians to submit a draft resolution that would secure the votes of all members including the US.

Malki confirmed that "there is no threat of a US veto being used".

Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general at the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) said, there has been "a coup" in the American position.

Rabbo said that although there were signs that the US had shown willingness to discuss the issue, his side must ensure that these talks were in the national interests of Palestine and not for other motives and goals that would make the UN draft resolution a step backward for the Palestinian cause.

Palestinian political leaders have expressed unease about several details of the draft proposal, including the designation of Jerusalem as a capital for both states, the refugees issue, as well as the question of settlements.

No version of the draft submitted to the UN was distributed officially to members of the leadership who obtained an English copy published in the foreign media.

But their reservations have come late. Malki declared on Thursday that "the draft resolution is no more in our hands. The 15 members of the UNSC will consult about it among themselves".

Some have questioned just how effective the Palestinian leadership really is if, despite the unease, it did not protest the resolution.

Qais Abdul Karim, deputy secretary general of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said: "We have reservations on the paragraph stating that Jerusalem is the capital of the two states. We deem this paragraph in its present wording to downgrade the Palestinian position."

Karim told al-Araby al-Jadeed that his party considered the inclusion of this paragraph to be a mistake.

"There should have been an insistance on explaining that East Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Palestine," he added.

He called on the Palestinian leadership not to make any decisions and abstain from accepting any new amendments that would lower Palestinian demands.

"The necessary step is to stop any expected amendments that would dissolve and further downgrade the draft resolution," he said.

Finding resolutions

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) have also expressed reservations about several points in the text. These too relate to points about Jerusalem, refugees and settlements. Khalida Jarrar, one of the PFLP leader, told al-Araby al-Jadeed confirmed the front’s reservations about the English version of the draft.

"This draft is a manoeuvre to prevent Palestinians going to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and to find a formula for direct bilateral negotiations under American sponsorship, which means that nothing has changed," she said.

"This draft resolution came from the corridors of the United Nations and not from the Palestinian leadership, and the state which the Palestinians aspire for will not come from the [here]."

Jarrar said that the core of the Palestinian question is the right of return and not the state.

"We register our reservations about the text that deals with the issue of refugees as stipulated in the English version which we obtained," she said.

Jarrar says that despite being told it was her right to have a copy, efforts to obtain the draft were met with procrastination from the Palestinian officials.

When a member of the PLO executive committee was questioned on the issue, he responded, "Not everything necessary is practised."

According to sources, Bassam al-Salhi, secretary general of the Palestinian People’s Party has the same reservations as Jarrar.

Rabbo also confirmed in the radio interview that the leadership has not seen officially the draft resolution.

"There are some who follow up with this draft, but there were provisions that were made public in the media as regards the status of Jerusalem and other issues," he says.

This article is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.