MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS AT CRITICAL JUNCTURE - CHIEF NEGOTIATOR

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 (Bernama) -- Chief Palestinian Negotiator Dr Saeb Erakat
has expressed serious concern over the future of the Middle East peace process
and questioned Israel's commitment to meaningful and credible negotiations and
the establishment of a sovereign and independent Palestinian state.

"We are at a critical moment. By rejecting a return to negotiations based on
the principles of the Quartet Road Map, Israel has put America and the
international community in a difficult position," he said in a statement issued
by the Palestinian embassy here.

However, the way forward is not to drop the demand for Israel to comply with
its obligations, he said, adding that such a decision threatened to deal a fatal
blow to the peace process because without a settlement freeze and the eventual
dismantlement of settlements, there will be no Palestinian state to negotiate
and no two-state solution left to speak of.

The roadmap for peace is a plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
proposed by a "quartet" of international entities, namely the United States, the
European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Under the Road Map, Israel was
supposed to implement a comprehensive freeze on all settlement activity,
including in and around occupied East Jerusalem.

However, Israel was reported to have said that some settlements should be
allowed to expand, a process it calls "natural growth" but which the
Palestinians and the United States have both rejected.

"Israel's refusal to comply with any of its Road Map obligations, despite
its own undertakings and repeated US assurances, does not mean that we have
changed our position when it comes to obligations and international law.

"Our position has not changed. An immediate and comprehensive settlement
freeze has been a consistent requirement for us to engage in negotiations, as
well as the benchmark established by the international community for meaningful
and credible negotiations to resume," Dr Erakat said.

He said Palestinians could not accept continued settlement construction or
the colonisation of Palestinian land in violation of international law, whether
in occupied East Jerusalem or in any other part of the occupied Palestinian
territory.

"Nor do we recognise a 'moratorium' as anything other than a failure of
Israel to implement a comprehensive settlement freeze as it is required to do
under the 2003 Road Map. What the Middle East peace process desperately needs
right now is credibility, not more 'process,' he said.

"If there is one lesson that the last 16 years of negotiations has taught
us, it is that negotiations for their own sake do not create a horizon of hope,
but instead provide a cover behind which Israel will further entrench its
occupation, and continue to create 'facts on the ground' that foreclose any
prospect for a two-state solution," Dr Erakat said.

Since 2003, the settler population in the West Bank has increased by 73,000
settlers or 17 per cent.

Dr Erakat pointed out that under the current Israeli government, every
substantive aspect of the peace process, every substantive gain made in previous
negotiations, had been whittled away and that Israel had signalled its rejection
of any serious discussions on permanent status issues like Jerusalem,
recognition of the 1967 borders, refugees or settlements.

"If America cannot get Israel to implement a settlement freeze, what chance
do Palestinians have of reaching agreement with Israel on permanent status
issues?"

"Only negotiations that are based on internationally recognised terms of
reference, and that hold both parties accountable to international law and their
respective obligations under existing agreements as reinforced by the Quartet in
its most recent statement issued on Sept 24, have any chance of delivering a
just and lasting peace.

"Pressuring Palestinians to make further concessions to accommodate Israeli
intransigence is not the answer," Dr Erakat concluded.

Reports said that on Sept 24, the Quartet renewed its call for Israel to
freeze settlements in occupied territories. It urged Israel to freeze all
settlement activity, including natural growth, and to refrain from provocative
actions in East Jerusalem.
-- BERNAMA