Israel tells foreign backers of Geneva peace initiative they threaten road map

Chris McGreal in Jerusalem

Wednesday October 29, 2003

The Guardian

The Israeli government has launched a diplomatic offensive to discourage foreign support for a groundbreaking peace initiative that its supporters say has exposed the bankruptcy of Ariel Sharon's policies.

The foreign ministry summoned a senior Swiss diplomat to protest against his government's support for the "Geneva initiative" made public two weeks ago by leftwing Israeli politicians and a group of Palestinian leaders.

Two years of secretive negotiations were led by the former Israeli cabinet minister, Yossi Beilin, and a close ally of Yasser Arafat, Yasser Abed Rabbo.

Their agreement was for the Palestinians to renounce the right of refugees to return to their former homes in Israel and for the evacuation of almost all Jewish settlements on the West Bank beyond what Israel defines as Jerusalem.

Although Mr Sharon dismissed the initiative as close to treason and illegitimate, his government's vigorous denunciations suggest it is unnerved by the plan.

The Geneva initiative's originators are seeking about £600,000 from foreign governments and wealthy individual donors to print and distribute copies of their draft agreement to every household in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

In its efforts to discourage overseas support, Israel is not directly challenging the content of the plan.

Instead it is questioning the propriety of foreign governments supporting an initiative the Israelis say undermines the moribund "road map" initiated by the US, the EU, the UN and Russia.

After the Swiss foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, won support from Jack Straw and the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, for the initiative, the Israeli foreign ministry director general, Yoav Biran, summoned the Swiss charge d'affaires in Tel Aviv, Claude Altermatt, to warn him that his government was interfering in Israel's affairs.

"Israel supports the road map and President Bush's vision. That is the only plan that has gained international legitimacy and that is acceptable to the parties," Mr Biran said. "There is no place for alternative initiatives."

At the weekend, Israel's foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, told the cabinet that France and Belgium had pledged ?6m to promote the Geneva initiative, but Israeli officials later backtracked on the claim.

Daniel Levy, a member of the Israeli negotiating team, said he believed the government's attempts to undermine support for the initiative had bolstered the plan, in part by exposing the failure of Mr Sharon's militarist policies to end the conflict with the Palestinians.

"We've been following very closely the government's reaction and in addition to giving us a significant boost in terms of free media and publicity, we believe this means the people in government are taking this seriously and they understand the alternative we are presenting does pose a challenge to the political passivity and the exclusively military policies the government has been pursuing," he said.

A formal ceremony to launch a campaign to win Israeli and Palestinian public support for the initiative is expected in Geneva this month. Among those invited is the former US president, Bill Clinton, who helped engineer the failed Oslo accords.

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