Time to end the occupation

Arab delegations to the UN on Monday endorsed a Palestinian proposal to reach a peace deal with Israel within a year and end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories by late 2017.

The draft resolution departed from the traditional position on Jerusalem, which used to be that the holy city should be the shared capital of Palestine and Israel, now asking for East Jerusalem to be the capital of the projected Palestinian state.

Among other issues in the draft resolution are the urgent need to achieve “a just, lasting and comprehensive peaceful solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, security arrangements “including though a third-party presence”, “a just solution” to all other outstanding issues, like Palestinian refugees, prisoners in Israeli jails, settlements and water.

As expected, sadly, the US voiced criticism of the proposed resolution, claiming that it fails to take into account Israeli security concerns.

A US State Department spokesman told reporters on Monday that the new draft resolution “is not something that we would support, and other countries share the same concerns that we have. We think it sets arbitrary deadlines for reaching a peace agreement and for Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank, and those are more likely to curtail useful negotiations than to bring them to a successful conclusion”.

Strange that the US would consider proposed deadlines arbitrary. What would be a “reasonable” deadline for it and Israel? Doomsday?

How can negotiations take place without a framework for conclusion?

Just like until now, obviously. Decades of talks, vague promises, continued settlement expansion and land theft till there is precious little left for the Palestinians to call home, let alone “state”.

The US would rather wait until the Israeli general elections conclude in March before intervening by the UN.

This waiting game has become a permanent feature of the Palestinian problem. It took the Palestinians nowhere and the Israelis deeper into the occupied lands.

The famous UN Security Council Resolution 242, adopted in 1967 after the Arab-Israeli war, called for Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and granted the Palestinians the right of return.

In 2015, almost half a century after the adoption of Resolution 242, Israel still occupies the West Bank, refuses to allow Palestinians to go back and formally annexed East Jerusalem, over and above other lands under its occupation.

The fate of the yet to be voted on resolution may not be any different from all previous UN decisions on the Palestinian conflict.

Still, Palestinians are trying everything to get the peace talks moving again in the right direction, and in earnest.

It is time the world lived up to its conscience and did something concrete to free Palestinians from half a century of occupation.