The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Saturday in Ramallah to confer on Israeli settlement-building policy, shortly after a planned meeting between Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abas was mysteriously cancelled.
The PLO Executive Committee issued a statement confirming the decision to convene the UN body as part of increasing dialogue with western powers, according to a statement released after a meeting of the body. “We have decided to undertake contacts with all international blocs for the Security Council to adopt a resolution against settlements and for them to be stopped," it said.
Israeli media-confirmed reports of a scheduled meeting between Mofaz and Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Abbas were thrown into disarray by subsequent conflicting stories of its cancellation.
Assorted newspapers and Israel Radio declared Wednesday that talks were to take place in Ramallah on Sunday, following repeated calls by coalition partner and Kadima leader Mofaz to Abbas for dialogue.
Talks between the Palestinian leader and Israeli deputy were seen as a compromise as the PA had refused to meet with Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyhu while Israel pursued its settlement building policy, whilst Netanyahu has continued to call for talks without preconditions.
At a high-profile meeting of his centrist Kadima colleagues earlier this month, Mofaz called for his Palestinian counterparts to “come and talk peace”, adding that “the Palestinians must know that our hand is extended in peace to those who are willing and able to decide. We will not have a better opportunity than this one.” The announcement of a national unity governing coalition between Kadima and Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party was widely seen by the international community as a much-needed potential kickstart for peace negotiations which had lain dormant since 2008.
Reports from Ramallah suggest that Palestinian opposition amongst the public and intense lobbying from Hamas were responsible for the annulment of talks with senior Fatah official Bakr Abu Bakr seeming to confirm this on Saturday. Public outcry is thought to be caused by Mofaz’s previous career as a chief of staff of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and Dfence Minister. Other Palestinian officials claim that planned forthcoming talks between Abbas and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are to take precedence over the meeting with Mofaz, as they are certain to focus heavily on the stalled Middle East peace process. Others still insist that the meeting would not have represented formal negotiations, due to continued Israeli settlement activity.
PLO member Wasl Abu Yosef meanwhile confirmed cancellation of the talks to reporters frankly stating that “we know that Mofaz will bring nothing new”. Contrasting stories were not only a feature of the Palestinian political landscape over the weekend either, as Israeli sources presented similarly convoluted objections, as Mofaz’s camp claim Netanyahu “torpedoed” the meeting due to ongoing conflict between the coalition partners over the successor to Tal Law, a bill designed to legislate on sharing the burden of national service across religious divides.
Mofaz has repeatedly stated the new law should impose sanctions on individuals who don’t enlist in the Israeli army whilst Netanyahu has insisted the legislating committee must drop a call for personal sanctions from its recommendations for the bill.
Kadima sources alleged that Netanyahu intervened to cancel the Ramallah talks, following a strained meeting between the Israeli coalition partners on Friday, saying: “It was wrong to torpedo the meeting. It doesn’t help diplomatically, but we believe the meeting will happen soon, and we are careful not to inflame tensions with Bibi [Netanyahu] on this right now.”
Unnamed sources close to Netanyahu meanwhile refuted these allegations in a statement to Israeli television. According to Channel 10, the official said it was “embarrassing that there are people close to Mofaz trying to claim that there is a connection between the Tal Law and the meeting with Abu Mazen [Abbas]. This is a claim that was made up after the Palestinians already announced that the meeting was cancelled because of the demonstrations in Ramallah against it”. The landscape was further muddied by Thursday’s vote by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to recognise Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity as an endangered Palestinian heritage site, in response to the PA’s emergency application, a move seen by many as a cynical ploy to further Abbas’ plans for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state by the UN.
The developments are sure to be a source of concern for the international community, with the suggestion of tensions between the newly-formed coalition members putting a bomb in the works of raised hopes that the unity government would offer renewed vigour to abandoned peace talks. Clinton has previously described the coalition formation as providing a “new opening” for peace as well as speaking out against plans for unilateral action, insisting peace talks are the “only route” for a settlement between the two parties.
Earlier this month, Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev responded to calls for peace talks by Abbas, by insisting “Israel remains ready for the immediate resumption of peace talks without any preconditions.” “The prime minister has stated his willingness to meet President Abbas in Jerusalem, in Ramallah, or in a third country,” he continued. “We are ready.”

EJP