* Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies – Masarat

 

Many assume as true Trump’s vision presents for the first time in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict as an initiative for a solution that is worse than what actually exists in reality. This statement is completely accurate, because initiatives for solutions are usually balanced, or try being balanced, even if they are biased to a party, by submitting to each party a portion of its demands. As for this initiative, it transcends historical facts, international rules and references, and replaces them with the facts established by the Israeli occupation, its security and interest. It gave Israel everything, and it did not give the Palestinians anything.

Even when some reader may believe that this deal grants some points in favor of the Palestinians, such as the acknowledging the establishment of a Palestinian state (and for those who do not believe this, read Benjamin Netanyahu’s article on the deal), he will find that it retrieves it with the other hand, by setting more than 30 conditions that make the consent of the Palestinians to this state impossible. Moreover, if we concede that they agreed to it, it will only do with the consent of Israel, it is the one who laid down the questions, and that decides the success or failure of Palestinians to it. And if the “state” is established, it will have nothing but the name, since it will be without sovereignty, cut-off, penetrated by settlement colonies and security and military areas, and making it like Swiss cheese. Even internal security will be under Israeli guardianship, and the occupying forces have the right to enter it whenever and wherever they want, and there will be at least one early warning station inside the territory of the forthcoming so-called “state”.

 

Regardless of this, there is opposition from some Israeli circles from inside and outside the government about the state in the vision, which led Netanyahu to postpone submitting it to acknowledgement by the government and there is a tendency not to endorse the Palestinian state clause. Experience has taught us that even if approved, the provisions regarding the state will not be applied, especially since Arab-Israeli agreements, no matter how bad or good, are applied by Israeli governments in a way that is a lot worse than what is stated in the text, whoever has power on the ground, interprets the agreement as convenient to him.

 

If we turn to how to approach the vision of the refugee issue, which is the basis and essence of the Palestinian Cause, we will be more than astonished. It bypasses international law and international legitimacy resolutions that are re-approved every year by the United Nations, especially Resolution 194 that provides for compensation and return of refugees to the homeland from which they were displaced.

 

The “Trump- Netanyahu deal” includes six parts on refugees that contains 18 violations of refugee rights in accordance with international law. It stipulates “a just, fair and realistic solution is required for Palestinian refugees, and an urgent solution (note the word urgent) for Jewish refugees, through an appropriate international mechanism separately from the Palestinian-Israeli agreement, which includes compensation to Israel for absorbing Jewish “refugees” from Arab countries, and compensation for lost property” ignoring that they are not refugees, but the Zionist movement incited and pressured them, to the point of carrying out terrorist operations against them, in order to return to the “promised land.” This is a new point, worse than what was presented in previous offers, which wanted to combine compensation for Palestinian refugees with Jewish “refugees”, compensation for the countries in which Palestinian refugees resided, and compensation for Israel, while this plan is committed to compensating Israel and Jewish “refugees” only.

 

The deal emphasizes that the agreement must provide a complete end to all claims, including those relating to refugees or refugee status, that is, an end to the conflict, even though individual rights, such as the individual refugee’s right to return, do not vanish by any agreement, nor over time, and there will be no right of return or assimilation of any Palestinian refugee in the State of Israel, contrary to various previous initiatives that included return, albeit symbolic, even within the framework of family unification.

The vision considers that the approach of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and its multi-generational definition, perpetuate the refugee problem. This is a prelude to demanding its suspension, and changing the definition of refugee to include only refugees who were born in Palestine before the Nakba, and this number does not reach tens of thousands and is constantly decreasing, besides, people who stayed in permanent places will not be eligible to settle in a new place, and they can obtain compensation as mentioned below. As for the compensation, it is said that “it will seek to compensate the refugees (i.e., seek and not a commitment); also, talking about 50 billion dollars according to the economic plan is not for refugees, but for different projects and for multiple countries, which is not binding and suspended in the air, and includes a few grants, most of which are interest-bearing loans (more than half of which will be sought) and these amounts will be placed in a fund, which will be managed by two trusts designated by the State of Palestine and the United States, and the trustees will manage the fund in line with the principles laid down by the trustees and ratified by the State of Palestine and the United States.”

The vision adds: “the rate of movement of refugees from outside Gaza and the West Bank to the State of Palestine will be agreed upon by the two parties, and regulated by various factors, including economic strength, incentive structures and absorption capacity, provided that the rate of entry does not reduce spaces, and sweeps the development of infrastructure in the State of Palestine, or increases the security risks to the State of Israel.”
The vision outlines three options for refugees who want a permanent place to reside: assimilation in the state of Palestine according to the parameters set forth, which are determinants that place the decision in the hands of Israel; local assimilation in the host country (i.e. resettlement); accepting 5000 refugees every year for ten years in Islamic countries (this is a new point raised for the first time, as they were being talked about deporting them to new countries without specifying them).

The vision includes reference to the formation of a committee to look into the entry of refugees from countries that have suffered wars like Syria, in addition to that when signing the agreement, “the legal center of Palestinian refugees will end, UNRWA will be terminated, the camps will be removed and permanent housing will be established.”

It is, as you see, not a plan for a solution, but rather designed for the Palestinians to refuse, so that the United States and Israel continue to implement the Trump plan initiated by moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and to recognize it as a unified capital for Israel. The vision is not aimed at reaching a solution, but rather to liquidate the Palestinian cause from all its aspects, and it is overwhelmed with extremism to help withhold it, if the requirements for this are provided through the development of a new comprehensive vision, national unity, and a joint work strategy capable of undermining it.