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Geneva initiative wins EU backing

Gulf Daily News;
The Voice of Bahrain
Published: 3 February 2004
European Union officials gave their backing yesterday to an unofficial Middle East peace plan, the Geneva Initiative, designed to unblock the bloody stalemate between Israel and the Palestinians.

The plan's two authors, former Israeli justice minister Yossi Beilin and ex-Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, used talks with top EU officials to press for political and financial support.

EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said he was open-minded on extending funds to the two-month-old initiative, which has drawn a hostile reception from the Israeli government and a cool one from the United States.

"We hope that these brave initiatives for peace will be reflected in what others do and will gain increasing support throughout the region," he said after meeting Beilin and Abed Rabbo.

Patten said more technical work was needed to see how the plan would be implemented, but added: "We'll certainly consider those proposals in an open manner and within our existing budgetary rules and framework."

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the unofficial initiative was a welcome contribution to a "roadmap" to Middle East peace sponsored by the EU, the United States, United Nations and Russia.

"The initiative is timely, it is important, and we would like to help as much as possible," he said after meeting the plan's authors.


The Geneva Initiative goes further than the roadmap, making proposals for resolving some of the thorniest problems in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, such as the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

The sponsors of the Geneva Initiative - which has drawn a mixed reception from the Palestinian authorities - say the plan is complementary to the roadmap, not a replacement.

But progress on the roadmap itself - which envisages a Palestinian state next year - has ground to a halt with the Israeli government demanding first an end to Palestinian attacks.

Last Thursday a bomber killed 11 people in an attack on a bus in Jerusalem.

Abed Rabbo said the plan's backers were "very encouraged by the support" they had received from the EU, which is the biggest aid donor to the Palestinians.

Beilin added that "if the world refers to the Geneva accord very seriously as an option, then it will be possible for us to increase support at home, because the support at home is the most important thing for us".

Solana said the Geneva plan was "perfectly compatible with the roadmap", while renewing EU criticism of a security barrier being built by Israel along the West Bank.

"The wall will not contribute to peace, will not contribute to what is the dream of so many people," he said.


Despite its opposition to the wall, the EU along with the US has expressed reservations about an appeal by the UN General Assembly for the International Court of Justice to rule on the barrier's legality.

The opinion of the court at The Hague would be non-binding and only advisory, but could cause great embarrassment to Israel.

Patten said the barrier was damaging prospects for the "two-states" solution envisaged by the international roadmap.