Wide Refusal of “Arab Balfour Declaration”

Occupied Palestine- al-Ahed News

The Arab League, in an unprecedented event, declared its approval of adopting the plan of "land swaps in the framework of a peace agreement between "Israel" and Palestine."
This readiness grants an Arab opportunity to accept "Israel's" constant dominance on major settlements in the West Bank in return for them compensating Palestinians with other lands.
This approval followed the Arab League's deliberations in the delegation led by the Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad Ben Jasem al-Thani and included the Head of the AL, Nabil al-Arabi with leaders from the US administration.
The delegation met with senior US officials, chiefly the US Vice President Joe Biden and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

At the end of deliberations, the head of the delegation announced the AL's willingness to approve "minor changes" to the 1967 borders, which would allow, according to the US, a so-called two-state solution.
Moreover, the delegation comprised of a number of FMs and Arab ambassadors to Washington, where the delegation's mission was to persuade the administration of moving the political process with Palestinians forward upon the so-called Arab Peace Initiative.

Also, the US Secretary of State had pointed out, after meeting the Arab delegation, that it was a "very positive and constructive discussion," highlighting that senior Arab officials aimed at ending the feud.
Furthermore, Kerry stressed to the Arab delegation that the US President Barack Obama commits to a two-state vision drawn in 2011 in his speech to the US Secretary of State, vowing to regularly continue discussions with AL representatives until "peace is achieved between "Israel" and Palestine."

For his part, the Qatari FM stated, speaking on behalf of the delegation, "Achieving peace between Palestinians and "Israelis" is a strategic choice for Arab countries," adding, "We reiterate the Arab Peace Initiative so that shared Palestinian and "Israeli" justice and peace are realized as well as stability in the Middle East."
In this context, Palestinian factions condemned "stances and policies the AL delegation took in Washington," warning of "the looming risks facing the Palestinian cause due to the compromises that the AL delegation made in Washington, which was an American-Zionist attempt to annihilate the Palestinian people's rights."

Moreover, the factions noted in a statement, "The AL delegation to Washington does not represent the Palestinian people or the Arab nation, and does not express our people's will, which holds on to our complete rights."
The factions "condemned and censured the Qatari FM Hamad Ben Jassim al-Thani's statements on the land swap, meeting "Israel's" wishes," rejecting, "Any Palestinian support to the compromises that the AL delegation offered over the Palestinian people's welfare."
The factions further expressed their "astonishment of the influential figures' silence and submission," demanding all Palestinian forces and factions to "hold historic responsibility."
For its part, Hamas Movement criticized the approval of the Arab Peace Initiative on the land swap with "Israel".

An official in the Movement mentioned in a statement, "We, as Hamas Movement, express our deep concern regarding the statements of the AL's Arab Peace Initiative in Washington on land swapping with the occupation."
Hamas further stated that it had hoped "the Arab Ministerial delegation would have demanded Washington to pressure the occupation and stop settlements on our occupied territories."

It considered "the long experience with the Zionist entity taught us that they do not want peace, but seek to impose submission on our nation and people, and tries to gain time by talking about peace delusions."
On a similar note, member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization's Executive Committee Saeb Oureiqat described the proposal that the Qatari Prime Minister and his FM declared following deliberations of the Follow-up Committee to the Arab Settlement Initiative considering the 1967 borders as an essential basis to end the Palestinian-Zionist conflict as a reproduction of old proposals.
In a statement, Oureiqat stated, "The ball is in the occupation's court now, although it does not admit that."
"There is no use to any of these proposals or any other if the Zionist entity's stubbornness does not end," he stated.

For his part, a leader in the Jihad Movement Khaled al-Batesh severly slammed the results of Washington's deliberations, wondering, "Did the Arab League turn into a center for American research or the AIPAC?"
In an interview, al-Batesh accentuated that the Arab delegation should have adopted the maneuver policy, describing the Initiative as an "Arab Balfour Declaration."

Likewise, Iran saw that the American agreement with the AL delegation to make "Israel" retreat from the 1967 territories as a kind of political delusion.
Ali Larijani, the Iranian Chairman of Parliament, stated in response to the AL delegation's decision with the US Secretary of State, "We witnessed such plots before, and they soon diminish with time because it didn't take the Palestinian people's rights into consideration."

After meeting with the Syrian Speaker Parliament Mohammad al-Laham, Larijani stated, "Such a step might have been taken to ease the pressures facing "Israel"," emphasizing, "We now know what all this fuss about Syria is about."
Larijani further stressed his pessimistic perspective on this plot, describing it as "fruitless" because it doesn't look into the Palestinian people's anticipations and rights.

Source: al-Ahed News, translated and edited by moqawama.org