Israel proposes W. Bank-Gaza route in land swap
By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent Last update - 02:58 23/08/2007
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/896623.html

Israel has proposed that safe passage for the Palestinians from the West
Bank to the Gaza Strip be included in an exchange of territory with the
Palestinians in the framework of the agreement of principles now being
formulated ahead of the upcoming regional summit.

The Palestinians will receive control of the route, but Israel will maintain
sovereignty and it will only begin to operate after the Palestinian
Authority, under its present leadership, reasserts control over the Gaza
Strip.

Jerusalem believes that the move will help PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and
Prime Minister Salam Fayad garner public support in Gaza, which will see the
Hamas government as an obstacle in renewing communication with the West
Bank.

A senior official involved in talks with the Palestinians said that the
agreement of principles will not set out the details of the land to be
transfered to the Palestinians in exchange for Israel's settlement blocs,
but will reflect as wide as possible a consensus on the core issues with
some ambiguity. The details will be hammered out in negotiations after the
summit.

It is believed that for the Palestinians, safe passage is worth more than
its nominal territory, and therefore this will be a central component in a
territorial package.

Sources close to Abbas say the PA chairman has removed his objection to the
establishment of a state with temporary borders following the signing of the
agreement of principles, but has conditioned his agreement on international
assurances of a timetable for the end of negotiations on permanent borders.

Internal discussions in Israel along with talks with the Palestinians are
formulating the following positions:

Borders -- The starting point is the separation fence, without additional
areas slated for the expansion of settlements. This leaves 92 percent of the
area of the West Bank in Palestinian hands. The final area of the new state
will be larger than the area east of the fence, but smaller than the area
proposed in the Geneva Accord.

Among themselves, Israeli officials talk about the need to begin applying
the principles of the Evacuation-Compensation Law on West Bank settlers. Two
bills have recently been proposed on this issue, one by Colette Avital
(Labor) and Avshalom Vilan (Meretz), and the other by Amir Peretz and Yuli
Tamir (Labor).

Jerusalem -- According to a government official, Israel would be willing to
transfer to the Palestinians at an early stage a number of neighborhoods and
refugee camps outside the fence and in the area of the Seam Line. At a later
stage, it would transfer more or most of the Arab neighborhoods.

The guiding principle is similar to that of the Clinton Plan: Jewish areas
for Jews and Arab areas for Arabs. The "basin" of sacred sites in the Old
City would be administered jointly by representatives of the three
religions, each responsible for its own sites.

Refugees -- Israel would recognize Palestinian refugee suffering and accept
indirectly some responsibility for the refugees from the 1948 war. Israel
would also take part in an international project to rehabilitate refugees in
Palestine, in areas Israel would transfer to the Palestinians and in the
countries where they are now living.

Israel is basing itself on the clause in the Arab peace plan noting that a
solution to the refugee problem is predicated on Israel's consent.

While the U.S. did not plan the agenda of the summit ahead of time, it sees
the agreement of principles as key to the summit's success and is
encouraging the parties to move ahead on it before the summit. The Americans
believe the agreement greatly improves the chances that Saudi Arabia will
take part in the summit, and will back Abbas and Fayad politically and
economically. To connect the regional summit to the Saudi and Arab
initiatives, the Saudis and the Palestinians want the summit to relate to
the Israel-Syrian issue as well.