Israeli-Palestinian negotiations must be grounded in international law and human rights – define borders and address security issues first.

13 December 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For nearly two decades, there have been peace processes in the Middle East but no peace. In our recent visits to four countries across the region and the occupied Palestinian territory, we heard a consistent message: people want peace, but are sceptical about the process and have little faith in the international community to deliver.

There is now an opportunity to reassess the entire approach to the negotiations. The flawed U.S. effort to secure from Israel another partial freeze on settlement-building, in exchange for generous inducements, as a way of resuming direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders has failed.

We now urge a renewed effort, firmly based on international law and respect for human rights, aimed at defining boundaries between Israel and a new Palestinian state and addressing security issues, without neglecting the other issues at the core of the conflict. Without such focus, we may see the possibility of a two-state solution slipping even further away.

Our primary purpose is to help bring peace and security to Israel and its neighbours.

We therefore call on governments and citizens around the world to insist that future negotiations are based on the following:

Towards a two-state solution and regional peace

Israelis and Palestinians must ultimately agree to a solution, but they cannot do it alone.

The international community must help them reach that agreement through fair and robust mediation and by reconfirming prior agreements, UN Security Council resolutions, international law and human rights principles.

Citizens must step up pressure on their leaders.

As Elders, we will do all we can to persuade governments around the world to apply a rights-based approach to this terrible conflict and to turn the focus of initial negotiations to border and security issues.

We have already given our support to non-violent protest and creative civil action for peace. We will continue to do so – in person when we can and in spirit when we cannot.

Without a strategy that can deliver a peace agreement based on a two-state solution, Palestinians will continue to live under Israeli occupation, millions of Palestinian refugees will continue to live without hope and Israel’s survival and security remain under threat. If there is no real progress, more violence is the likely outcome.

Our greatest wish is that the Middle East will achieve lasting peace, stability and prosperity for all its people.

More information:
Read the report from the Elders's 2010 visit to the Middle East.
Read posts from the Elders, as well as those affected by the conflict, on the Elders' Middle East blog.
Following their trip to the Middle East, the Elders asked supporters to send in questions about the conflict. Their video responses were published on the Elders' YouTube Channel.

About The Elders

The Elders are an independent group of global leaders, brought together by Nelson Mandela in 2007, who offer their collective influence and experience to support peace- building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity.

The Elders are Martti Ahtisaari, Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, Lakhdar Brahimi, Gro Brundtland, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jimmy Carter, Graça Machel, Mary Robinson and Desmond Tutu (Chair). Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi are honorary Elders.

Website: www.theElders.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/theElders
Twitter: www.twitter.com/theElders

Contact:

media@theElders.org

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Desmond Tutu, center, placed a stone on a grave in Bilin, site of weekly protests against the Israeli barrier. With him, from left: Gro Brundtland, Jimmy Carter, Ela Bhatt and Abdallah Abu Rahmah. Photo: Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times

By Sam Bahour*

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- At long last, a spotlight is shining on Palestinian nonviolent efforts to throw off the Israeli occupation. A visit by a group of high profile "Elders" last month to the Palestinian village of Bil'in in the West Bank, and the barrier running through it, bathed our landscape in a moral clarity that is too rarely seen by the outside world. Each of the Elders is a powerful moral authority and includes figures like former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former President Mary Robinson of Ireland.

One after another, they reiterated that our destiny as Palestinians and Israelis is to live together in mutual respect, as equals. The Elders' online forum, via satellite, with Palestinians and Israelis from Jerusalem, Gaza, Tel Aviv and Ramallah, was a sign of their determination to build bridges between people - despite the walls, checkpoints and laws that Israel has deployed to separate Palestinians and Israelis. Perhaps the time has come for the Elders to take the next step and endorse a measure that might just bring an end to the 42 years of Israeli occupation. It is one of the most powerful measures in the arsenal of nonviolent weapons: the boycott.

The boycotts, divestment and sanctions campaign is a global movement calling on international civil society organizations and individuals all over the world to impose boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel as long as it refuses to remove the boot of military occupation from the necks of Palestinians.

It is clear that Palestinians cannot come to the negotiating table as fully empowered equals to discuss their future while their present is being stripped out from under them by settlement building. I am encouraged by President Obama's insistence that Israel freeze settlement activity, but nevertheless remain concerned that he will cave in to pressure to relax his position. Without support from the Obama administration, Palestinians will need a massive international movement on their behalf.

An international boycott could provide just that. It has been used effectively by nonviolent movements across the world. Similar campaigns have worked, from the beaches of India to the buses of Montgomery to the vineyards of California.

Palestinians, in fact, have a history of nonviolent resistance to Israeli occupation. Mubarak Awad led the way with his Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence until Israel deported him. In the last few years, villagers in Bil'in and Ni'ilin have been holding weekly protests of Israel's separation wall. In fact, the latter campaign has been a source of encouragement not only because of the villagers' perseverance, but because they have been joined by Israeli Jews who take a central role in the protest activities.

These nonviolent activists are not alone. The dual system of law imposed by Israel in the West Bank and Gaza is generating the same sort of moral outrage that led millions to support a boycott against the apartheid government in South Africa. Crucially, courageous Israeli journalists are speaking out along with Professor Neve Gordon of Ben Gurion University, who recently wrote in the Los Angeles Times that "(p)utting massive international pressure on Israel is the only way to guarantee that the next generation of Israelis and Palestinians - my two boys included - does not grow up in an apartheid regime."

I know many Palestinian parents who would like nothing more than for their children to be able to play with the Gordon children as equals.

The Elders could do enormous good by speaking with the governments that supply Israel with armaments used to batter Palestinians in violation of international law. They have the moral integrity to remind politicians in Israel, and across the globe, of their obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention. An endorsement by the Elders could also give impetus to the Palestinian leadership to embrace a full-fledged commitment to a sustained nonviolent strategy.

There is nothing inactive about nonviolence. It takes physical, mental and spiritual courage. An endorsement by the Elders might just jolt the world and highlight already existing nonviolent actions against the occupation.

* Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American businessman from Youngstown, Ohio, who lives in the West Bank and met the Elders during their August trip to the Middle East. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service. Readers may send him e-mail at cgnews@sfcg.org.

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