ISRAELI PRIME minister Binyamin Netanyahu has rejected a plan by Palestinians to unilaterally declare an independent state and seek UN backing for such a move.
Addressing the Saban Forum in Jerusalem last night, Mr Netanyahu warned that Israel would no longer consider itself obligated to previous agreements signed with the Palestinians if a state were declared unilaterally.
Stressing that negotiations were the only way forward, he threatened that Israel would respond with its own unilateral moves if the Palestinian leadership took one-sided steps.
Despite US president Barack Obama’s decision to prioritise Middle East peace efforts, Israel and the Palestinians are still not talking.
Mr Netanyahu has committed to a temporary settlement freeze that does not include construction projects already under way. The Palestinians insist that talks can only resume once Israel stops all building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Frustrated at the deadlock, the Palestinians have been seeking diplomatic alternatives. Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said yesterday the Palestinians were considering asking the United Nations to endorse a unilateral declaration of independence.
“Now is a defining moment. We went into this peace process to achieve a two-state solution,” he said. “The endgame is to tell the Israelis now that the international community has recognised the two-state solution on the 1967 borders.”
The Palestinians declared independence once before – exactly 21 years ago, on November 15th, 1988, at the height of the first intifada uprising. That move was recognised by dozens of states but little changed on the ground.
Some Israeli officials speculated that the Palestinians are bluffing this time round in an effort to exert pressure on Israel to make more concessions.
But defence minister Ehud Barak, who is also the leader of the Labor Party, warned that Israel should take the Palestinian threat seriously and international support for such a move could grow if the diplomatic impasse continues.
The defence minister said the fact that Israel was controlling another people for 42 years was at the root of Israel’s weakening international support. “It is our responsibility to end this. We have vital interests and nothing needs to happen at any price or by running amok, but we must not be confused regarding our responsibility to reach an agreement with the Palestinians,” he said.
Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman warned that if the Palestinians declared a state the conflict would merely spread into Israel proper, with Israeli Arabs demanding autonomy in the Galilee and the Negev.