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Lessons from Negotiating with the Palestinians

(Ha'aretz) Aluf Benn- Alan Baker, legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry since 1996, leaves this week for his new post as Israel's ambassador to Canada. He was asked about the lessons he learned from many years of negotiations with Arab states and the Palestinians: "We were naive when we conducted negotiations during the period of Rabin and Peres. There was nothing in the [Oslo] interim agreement that related to what would happen if the whole business fell apart....There was nothing about the complete crumbling of the PA, or its takeover by hostile and violent elements. And we have been suffering because of this for years." Baker joined the Foreign Service in 1979, and went right into the normalization talks with Egypt. "I sat with [the Egyptians] on 50 negotiating committees on every possible subject, and the economic and tourism potential has been lost. We have been without an Egyptian ambassador for four years. I'm disappointed in the Jordanians as well. They conducted very intimate negotiations over the peace treaty and the transportation agreements. They are very nice people, but the agreements include an obligation for a resident ambassador. Where is he?" What about the settlements? "We started to negotiate with [the Palestinians] on an accompanying letter that would clarify Israel's settlement policy and its limitations. After five or six formulations, Arafat came and said he preferred there not be anything....In the [Oslo] interim agreement there's just the clause about planning and construction in the civilian appendix, that both sides can build in their territory as long as it does not cause damage." Do the settlements contravene the Geneva Convention? "We have a dispute with the international community. We argue that the prohibition on the transfer of population to occupied territory, in Article 94 of the Geneva Convention, was formulated during World War II to prevent the massive forced transfer of population in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. We aren't doing this. The settlement policy is voluntary." According to Baker, the Palestinians prefer to emphasize the settlements as the spearhead of their political struggle against Israel, because it is more convenient for them than raising demands about Jerusalem, which may anger the Christian world, or about the Palestinian refugees' right of return, which he says does not exist at all in terms of international law. Baker has no doubt that the construction of the security fence is justified according to international law, which allows the occupier to construct defenses. What do you think about the recommendation that Israel declare the application of the Geneva Convention in the territories? "Since 1967 Israel's policy has been to apply the Fourth Geneva Convention de facto. We did not agree to its de jure application because the relevant clause in the convention states that occupied territory is territory taken from a previous sovereign. Since we did not want to recognize Jordanian sovereignty in the West Bank, we did not formally apply the convention." Aren't you concerned about sanctions against Israel as a result of the international court's ruling? "No, I don't believe that the Europeans and most countries want to take a 'violent' step against Israel." Baker is trying to fight against the Palestinian effort to give international recognition to the Green Line. "The cease-fire agreements state that the line is temporary and is not to impair any political border to be determined by the two sides. Therefore, the Green Line is not considered a border, but rather in practical terms has become a separation line between sovereign Israeli territory and territory that is still in negotiation or dispute."
2004-09-03 00:00:00
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