THE Palestine Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, have very clear ideas of what should be the outcome of their talks tomorrow at Erez, writes Michael Jansen.
Speaking last weekend at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Arafat reiterated his insistence that they should discuss Israel's implementation of the agreements previously signed by the two sides while Mr Netanyahu, striking an upbeat note, spoke of making a "new beginning" in the repeatedly stalled peace process.
The head of the Palestinian negotiating team, Dr Saeb Erekat, said the two sides had to translate "our words into facts on the ground" in order to convince both ordinary Palestinians and Israelis that the peace process was still viable.
Some 34 issues are listed in a document the Palestinians prepared last November as "awaiting implementation by the Israeli government" in accordance with the Interim Agreement of September 28th, 1995, known as "Oslo II".
Mr Hassan Asfour, the PLO coordinator of negotiations, told The Irish Times that this list included "whole agreements" (like the Economic Protocol of April 1994 which has been ignored) as well as specific provisions in Oslo II.
The Palestinians said that Israel had consistently violated the provision stating that the West Bank and Gaza Strip should be viewed as a single territorial unit, the integrity and status of which will be preserved during the interim period
Israel violated this provision by cutting Gaza off from the West Bank, by denying normal free movement and imposing closures for security reasons.
Such closures are disallowed if they "prejudice. . . Palestinian development programmes and projects for reconstruction and development". And this is precisely what the many months of closure over the past two years have done.
Furthermore, denying Palestinians employment in Israel violates the Economic Protocol mentioned by Mr Asfour.