MIDDLE EAST:THE PALESTINIAN Authority yesterday rejected a proposal reportedly floated by Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert for Israeli withdrawal from 93 per cent of the West Bank in exchange for Israel's annexation of main settlement blocs.
"The Israeli offer is unacceptable because it contradicts Palestinian, Arab and international resolutions," stated Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeinah. He said the Palestinians would accept nothing less than a state based on the 1967 border and without settlements.
Mr Olmert's plan, reported in the daily Haaretz, provides for Israel's annexation of 7 per cent of the West Bank west of Israel's wall, which intrudes deep into the territory, isolating Palestinian cities, towns and villages. Both wall and settlements have been ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004.
In compensation, the Palestinians would receive territory in the Negev equivalent to 5.5 per cent of the West Bank territory and a corridor linking the West Bank to Gaza. The corridor would not involve ceding land and would remain under Israeli control.
Under the Olmert proposals a few Palestinian refugees would be allowed to return to Israel but the vast majority would settle in the Palestinian state, which would be demilitarised.
The emotive issue of Jerusalem, which both sides claim as their capital, would be postponed. This could allow Israel to continue constructing settlements in and around the city with the aim of preventing the transfer of the occupied eastern sector to Palestinian sovereignty. Mr Abu Rudeinah pointed out that the agreement reached at the Annapolis conference last November called for a settlement freeze, which Israel had not observed.
Implementation of the proposal would await the return of Gaza to Palestinian Authority rule. But Hamas, which insists on the handover of all Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in 1967, could be expected to resist any attempt to oust it from power.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat dismissed the notion of a partial agreement. "We are not a bazaar. We want a complete Israeli withdrawal from the territories . . . including Jerusalem, and agreement on all the final status questions."
He characterised the leaked proposal's provisions as "half-truths used by Israelis as a test balloon so they can blame the Palestinian Authority should the negotiations fail".
Last Sunday, chief Palestinian negotiator, Ahmad Qureia, warned that Palestinians may demand that Israel and the occupied territories be transformed into a binational state if Israel continues to reject a Palestinian state within the 1967 border.
