Publication
Omar Shaban Ismail · Sama News Agency · 2014
Omar Shaban recalls what he told a meeting organised by Hamas and Islamic Jihad shortly after the December 2012 truce: that the two movements had kept the Cairo truce negotiations to themselves although the issues were legally and economically complex — Gaza's legal status as occupied territory, the Rafah crossing and the 2005 agreement, the buffer zone, the fishing zone and freedom of movement between Gaza and the West Bank under the 1994 Paris Protocol — while Israel brought a delegation of 26 experts. With Gaza under assault for the third time in seven years and ceasefire talks under way, he urges the two movements' leaders to involve Palestinian experts, especially from abroad, and to consult young people, women, specialists and public opinion, which would secure better terms and give any agreement social protection: partnership in sacrifice requires partnership in decision-making.
Omar Shaban, July 2014: Hamas and Islamic Jihad should involve experts and society in ceasefire talks: shared sacrifice demands shared decisions.
In a special meeting organized by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza shortly after the signing of the ceasefire agreement in December 2012 in Gaza, and attended by many leaders of the two movements such as brothers Khaled al-Batsh and Khalil al-Hayya and others, the aim of the meeting was to brief us on the terms of the ceasefire. I summarized my position on that as follows: although the entire Gaza Strip was exposed to Israeli aggression, Hamas and Islamic Jihad had confined the ceasefire negotiations and the terms of the truce in Cairo, under the mediation of the ousted President Mohamed Morsi, to themselves alone, without any participation from Palestinian society either in the ceasefire or with regard to the terms of the truce. Since the issues raised for negotiation in this field are issues of an intertwined nature, in which the regional and international political, legal, economic, and linguistic dimensions overlap, dealing with them scientifically requires legal and economic expertise and important linguistic formulations, and political understanding alone is not sufficient in such negotiations. Among these issues are: 1) the legal status of the Gaza Strip, which international law still considers "occupied territory" despite the partial Israeli withdrawal from it in 2005. Accordingly, under the Geneva Conventions, the occupying power, Israel, is obligated to care for and protect the population under its occupation, namely the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip; likewise the issue of the Rafah crossing and the 2005 Agreement and the position of the multiple parties toward it; the buffer zone and the permitted fishing zone; the crossings with Israel and the West Bank; and guaranteeing the freedom of movement of goods and persons between Gaza and the West Bank as stipulated in the 1994 Paris Economic Protocol.
Given the importance of the negotiations, Israel, as is its habit, brought to those negotiations a delegation composed of 26 experts specialized in multiple fields, including security, economics, environment, psychology, and specialists in the Arabic language and international law, while the Palestinian negotiating delegation was not of the same number or expertise and consisted only of members of the two movements, as no Palestinian experts were consulted despite the extreme complexity of those issues. I concluded my intervention by saying: one of the strategic aspects that must be taken into account is how to prevent any new truce agreement from becoming a final agreement that would bind the Palestinians indefinitely, and how to spare any new agreement from detracting from previous agreements, which are already inadequate and deficient. This intervention was well received by the leaders of the two movements, without our knowing that in less than two years we would face another war and a second round of negotiations.
I apologize for recounting the intervention in some detail, but it suits the current phase, as the Gaza Strip is being subjected to aggression for a third time in seven years, and negotiations for a ceasefire are now taking place that may produce a new truce agreement whose terms we do not know. The state of intense polarization in the region, the cost of which is being paid by the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip in the blood of their children, their property, and their future, requires more than ever the involvement of Palestinian experts, especially from outside the homeland, who specialize in international law and international politics, who are familiar with previous agreements with Israel, and who are widely acquainted with the corridors of Western politics in general and American politics in particular. If implemented, this would help ensure better terms for the Palestinian side and limit the impact of the state of tension between Hamas and Egypt and the state of polarization in the region on the course of the negotiations. More importantly, such participation would provide strong evidence that Palestinian society as a whole contributed to its formulation, which would give it social immunity and reduce the responsibility of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the event that the agreement fails.
While I am convinced that the leaders of the two movements, in coordination with the Palestinian presidency, are working sincerely to achieve an honorable ceasefire, and that their conditions for a ceasefire touch the aspirations and hopes of the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip and all Palestinians, I call on the leaders of the two movements to work by all methods and means, despite the difficulty of the situation, to communicate with segments of Palestinian society in the homeland and the diaspora—youth, women, and experts in various fields—in order to benefit from their views, even if their actual participation is difficult, and to work by all means to discern public opinion, especially in the Gaza Strip, regarding the truce and its conditions. The Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, as they live through this war with a cruelty beyond description and endurance, as they watch with their own eyes their families being killed and their homes being destroyed, and as tens of thousands of citizens left their homes in the middle of the night amid power outages, have every right to express their views. One of the most important reasons for the achievement being made by the resistance is the people’s rallying around it and their willingness to sacrifice what is precious and what is not in order to be rid of the siege that had been killing them silently and slowly. Partnership in sacrifice requires partnership in decision-making.
Topic: Ceasefire & Peace Plans — 2014 Gaza war · ceasefire negotiations · Hamas · Islamic Jihad — Text © Sama News Agency — archived here with attribution to the source. — Original source