Creating a lasting peace for Jerusalem, Israel, and Palestine

1
Creating a lasting peace for Jerusalem, Israel,
and Palestine

• ECE 410
• E.D.G.E. 2008
• Prejudice and Poverty

2
The Corridor for Peace and Prosperity

• Initiated by Japan in 2006 to make Palestine an
  economically viable nation with investments in
  agriculture and a trade corridor through the
  common river border with Jordan
• New Japanese P.M. not currently pushing as hard
  for progress
  
• Major funding comes from JBIC
• Convenient location of JBIC office in Amman,
  Jordan

3

• The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries
  and Japan see eye to eye on the
  Palestinian-Israeli conflict, with Tokyo urging
  the international community to help achieve a
  just and comprehensive peace settlement based on
  the UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338.
  
• With support from the GCC, the large windfall
  profits can be put toward a common goal.
  
• Tokyo was also one of the few countries to
  recognize the Hamas government after its victory
  in democratic elections early last year.
  
• The GCC countries would also greatly benefit from
  Japans expertise on diversification into
  petrochemical and other heavy industries,
  especially aluminum and steel.

4
Trading information for the JBIC

• This proves the large funding ties already
  present between the Middle East and JBIC

5
Arab Peace Initiative(a seemingly forgotten
agreement)

• Based on a Land for Peace idea
• Puts forth the main idea that a military solution
  will not fix
  
• Goals---
• Full Israeli withdrawal from Arab regions that
  were occupied after the 6 day war
  
• Establish Independent Palestinian state with East
  Jerusalem as its capital
  
• Follow all UN resolutions to resolve land battles
  as well as returning Palestinian refugees
  
• Normalize relations between the two nations for a
  much needed Comprehensive peace

6
World Heritage site of Jerusalem
Old City of Jerusalem Publication of UNESCOs
technical mission Report

• The Government of Israel should be asked to
  comply with its obligations regarding
  archaeological excavations and heritage
  conservation in World Heritage sites such as the
  Old City of Jerusalem and, in particular, with
  Decision 30 COM.34 adopted by the World Heritage
  Committee in Vilnius in July 2006 on this matter.
  
• The Government of Israel should be asked to stop
  immediately the archaeological excavations, given
  that the excavations that had been undertaken
  were deemed to be sufficient for the purpose of
  assessing the structural conditions of the
  pathway.

Old City of Jerusalem
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• The Government of Israel should then clearly
  define the final design of the access structure,
  whose principal aim should be to restore the
  Mughrabi pathway without any major change to its
  structure and shape, in order to maintain the
  values of authenticity and integrity of the site.
  A clear work plan thereon should be communicated
  to the World Heritage Committee in the shortest
  possible time.
• The Government of Israel should be asked to
  engage immediately a consultation process with
  all concerned parties, in particular the
  authorities of the Waqf and of Jordan, the latter
  having signed a peace agreement on 26 October
  1994, and agree upon a plan of action before
  taking any further action and decision thereon.
• This process should be supervised by an
  international team of experts coordinated by
  UNESCO and involving in particular structural
  engineers, specialized in archaeological
  consolidation works, in order to ensure the most
  appropriate solution for the restoration of the
  Mughrabi pathway.

8

• Can Israel and Palestine come to an agreement on
  the 3 major issues?
  
• Once this happens, there still remains the
  refugees that seem to be exiled and isolated in
  the Gaza strip.
  
• Still remaining is the approaching conflict over
  another scarce resource (surprisingly NOT
  oil).Water
  
• Every government is taking measures to satisfy
  their country's water needs as much as possible,
  but since the Jordan River is shared by different
  countries, situations occur that the same cubic
  meter is claimed for consumption by different
  countries, too, which is not always possible to
  realize.
• Water that is used upstream for drinking can
  hardly reclaimed for the same purpose, and even
  storing water for later release causes undesired
  effects in downstream states.
• In combination with existing regional tensions,
  which are part of the Israeli-Arab conflict,
  competition over scarce water resources leads to
  international political and security consequences.

9
'Progress' on Palestinian borders
Significant progress" has been made on the issue
of future borders of a Palestinian state in talks
between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders,
officials say. Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime min
ister hosted Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian
president at his residence in Jerusalem on Monday
for their third round of talks in less than a
month. A senior Israeli official said on Monday t
hat they "made significant progress on the two
issues of outlining the borders of the future
Palestinian state and the security arrangements
between Israel and the Palestinian state".
"Olmert and Abbas have instructed the negotiating
teams to move forward on these issues," the
official who declined to be named, said, adding
that "the teams were already working with maps
during the talks". Saeb Erekat, a senior Pales
tinian negotiator, agreed the talks were "very
serious with a very candid exchange", but said
it was "really premature to jump to any
conclusions and start measuring progress or lack
of it".
10
Maps exchanged A Palestinian official confirmed
that the two sides had exchanged maps.
He said the Palestinians want all of the West Ba
nk - which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle
East War - as part of their state, but are ready
to give up nearly two per cent of the territory
in exchange for an equal amount of land from what
is now Israel. Israel wants to keep parts of the
West Bank in order to retain large Jewish
settlement blocs and for what it says are
security needs. Maps presented by Israel several
weeks ago sought to keep about 10 per cent of
the West Bank, the Palestinian official said.
He said that despite the gaps, the maps indicated
the sides are moving closer to a compromise on
the issue of final borders.
11
Todays Israel and Palestine
12
Palestinian force deployed in Jenin
A 500-strong force made up of Palestinian
national security forces and presidential guards
has begun deploying in the West Bank city of
Jenin for a law-and-order campaign.
  Jeeps and buses carrying the men left other Wes
t Bank cities on Saturday for Jenin in
co-ordination with Israel as part of a campaign
called Operation Smile and Hope.
The deployment is meant to show the Palestinian
Authority (PA) is laying the ground for
statehood.   Another 150 men already in Jenin wi
ll also take part in the campaign.
  Jenin is the second city after Nablus in the We
st Bank where freshly trained PA security
personnel have been deployed. Despite an increase
in their numbers in Nablus, Israeli troops
regularly conduct security raids there.
  "I hope this will be a step in the direction of
restoring full Palestinian security
jurisdiction in these areas," Saeb Erekat,
Palestinian negotiator and Fatah member, said.
  "So far this has not been done, and if the Isra
elis continue coming ... to Nablus and Jenin,
this would undermine our effort."
13
Israel-Palestine Center for Research and
Information

• Many of the solutions from the IPCRI have a basic
  definition of proper education as the core to any
  and all peace accords
  
• This represents yet another possible way for the
  windfall profits to be invested
  
• Many Palestinian texts show Jerusalem as the
  center for the three main religions of the
  region, however they define Jerusalem as always
  being an Arab city

14
Corridor for Peace and Prosperity showing signs
of progress

• The fourth technical-level meeting of the
  Four-Party Consultative Unit for the Corridor
  for Peace and Prosperity was held on March
  31(Mon) and April 1(Tue) in Jerusalem with the
  participation of experts from Israel, Japan
  (headed by Mr. Shinsuke Sugiyama, Deputy
  Director-General of the Middle Eastern and
  African Affairs Bureau), Jordan and Palestine.
  Although the Middle East Peace Process has fallen
  into difficulties, Japan has been actively
  engaged in promoting this initiative based on the
  idea that Japan will make its maximum
  contribution in any situation. The meeting was
  held with the cooperation of the other 3 parties
  in response to Japans positive attitude. 
• The outcome of the meeting is as follows
• The Japanese side briefed the current status of
  this initiative and developments of the second
  phase of the Feasibility Study (F/S). The Four
  Parties agreed to continue their cooperation for
  the development of the F/S, including research on
  suitable access between the site of the
  Agro-Industrial Park and the border with Jordan,
  towards its completion in November.
• The Jordanian side updated the current status of
  Damiya (Prince Mohammad) Bridge reconstruction
  issue.
  
• For the purpose of supporting the realization of
  the initiative, the Four Parties agreed to
  cooperate on expeditious formulation of projects
  and their implementation in order to contribute
  to agricultural development and facilitating
  transportation. In this relation, the proposal
  for technical cooperation project in the
  agricultural field was discussed and the Four
  Parties agreed to work closely for its
  materialization.
• The Four Parties agreed to hold the Third
  Ministerial-Level Meeting of the Four-Party in
  Tokyo soon in the months to come, with the hope
  to hold that before G8 Summit meeting, in order
  to announce the achieved results so far and
  future perspectives.

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• Profits from Saudi Arabia oil could be placed in
  the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation
  (JBIC), to be invested in the Corridor for Peace
  and Prosperity
• The Project will bring jobs to the Palestinian
  people.
  
• One million Palestinian families, each making
  40,000 adds up to 40 Billion, a small fraction,
  0.2, of the 20 Trillion windfall coming to the
  Kingdom.
• The other 4 million Palestinian families would
  provide goods and services to those funded by the
  Corridor project.
  
• These funds will greatly help the Palestinian
  people in the West Bank achieve an economic and
  political independence from their controlling
  neighbor Israel.
• Of the 717 million in funds promised by the Arab
  League, only 153 million has been delivered
  
• This funding is needed to help stop the new
  settlements in the West bank and bring an
  economic boost to the Palestinians
  

16
Outlook for peace increasing in the Gaza Strip

• A power plant in Gaza City has shut down,
  affecting 500,000 local inhabitants and forcing
  local hospitals to run on reserve fuel.
  
• As the siege of Gaza continued, Al Jazeera's
  Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from the Gaza side of
  the Rafah crossing, said that the main border
  point between the Gaza Strip and Egypt had been
  reopened to allow Palestinians in need of medical
  treatment to pass through.

• These are clear signs of hope from a neighbor
  nation willing to risk for the health and welfare
  of the besieged people.
  

17
Support needed from World Nations

• Signs of hope from neighbor nation willing to
  risk for the health and welfare of the besieged
  people
  
• Other nations, such as the US now need to show
  firm support for the peace process
  
• The US could simply stop support for the Israeli
  military until a solid peace accord is reached.
  
• The US funding for Israel's military reached over
  30 billion USD
  
• UN Peacekeepers with funding from large windfall
  profits would be able to control the
  international city of Jerusalem
  
• This would finally allow the establishment of a
  much needed international city for the people
  of the world to enjoy

18
Possible proof that peace can go forward in the
face of militant attacks

• A senior Egyptian official said on Tuesday night
  that Israel had accepted in principle a proposal
  for a truce in the Gaza Strip, according to the
  official MENA news agency.
• Rescue workers wheel away the body of Jimmy
  Kedoshim, killed by a mortar shell fired by
  Palestinians in Gaza.
  
• "Israeli leaders have informed us of their
  support for and understanding of the Egyptian
  proposals for a truce," the news agency quoted
  the unidentified official as saying.

• It added that Egyptian intelligence chief Omar
  Suleiman had relayed the news to a Hamas
  delegation from Gaza earlier in the day. Israeli
  officials declined to confirm the report. "As far
  as we are concerned, we can only indicate that
  contacts are continuing," said Mark Regev,
  spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
• According to the Israeli proposal, the first
  stage would include a cessation of hostilities,
  and then a lifting of the siege on Gaza - by
  opening the crossings - in exchange for
  advancement in efforts to free Schalit.
• Defense officials said that if Hamas accepted
  Israel's two-stage cease-fire proposal, a truce
  in Gaza would go into effect before the end of
  the week.
• In Gaza on Tuesday, two people were killed in
  separate IAF strikes. In the first attack, the
  army said, aircraft fired at a group of
  Palestinians firing rockets in the northeast Gaza
  Strip. Palestinian doctors said a boy, 13, was
  killed and another youth was seriously wounded.
• In the second strike, aircraft fired at
  Palestinians who were placing bombs along the
  security fence in central Gaza, the army said.
  Palestinian doctors said one man, 32, was killed.
  His identity was not immediately known. Earlier
  in the day, two Kassam rockets were fired into
  Israel.

19
Tourism also showing signs of improvement

• Rockets from the Gaza Strip, drive-by shootings
  in the West Bank and checkpoints on the edge of
  Bethlehem won't stop Khouloud Daibes from
  promoting the Palestinian territories as a great
  place for your next vacation.
• While sunbathing in the West Bank may sound like
  something out of P.J. O'Rourke's 1989 book
  Holidays in Hell, Daibes is trying to lure
  travelers. A year into the job, she's had some
  successes. Christmas tourists to Bethlehem
  tripled to 60,000 and she's won praise from
  Israel.
• Hundreds of foreign executives and trade
  officials will journey to Bethlehem this week for
  the first Palestine Investment Conference,
  including a discussion on tourism. Up for grabs
  are contracts generated by the 7.4 billion that
  donor states pledged last year to help rebuild
  the Palestinian economy.
• The number of guests at Palestinian hotels more
  than doubled in 2007 to 315,866, according to the
  Palestinian statistics bureau. Almost half stayed
  at hotels in eastern Jerusalem. It was the best
  year since 2000, when Pope John Paul II made his
  millennial pilgrimage to Israel and the West
  Bank.

Soldiers checking Palestinians at the Kalandia
checkpoint.Photo AP
20
Mount Olives Hotel
Ritz Hotel
Ambassador Hotel
The Ambassador Hotel is one of the first hotels
founded 1952 in the holy city Jerusalem. The
Hotel in located in the consulate district of
East Jerusalem, 1 km from the Old City and the
Holy Place like the Church of Holy Sepulchure,
Wailing Wall and Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Affordable family-run hotel situated on the Mount
of Olives, next to the Chapel of Ascension and
surrounded by famous churches and holy sites.
Commands a dramatic view of the Old City. A
simple accommodation in a homey atmosphere.
The Hotel in located at walking distance from the
Old City and most holy places like the church of
Holy Sepulchure, Wailing Wall, and Al-Aqsa
Mosque. All the rooms are newly furnished and
equipped with the necessary up to date
requirements.
21
Palestine Investment Conference in Bethlehem

• Resulted in pledges of up to 1.4 billion for the
  Palestinian economy
  
• Fayyad pointed out that the 1.4 billion raised
  would produce 35,000 new jobs, all in the private
  sector.
  
• 'This conference is not the end. It's only the
  beginning and it's only one step toward creating
  a sustainable economy,' Fayyad said.
  

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad,
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Quartet
Envoy Tony Blair sitting in the audience during
the opening ceremony of the first Palestinian
Investment Conference on Wednesday, 21 May 2008
22
Investments needed to make Jerusalem a truly
International City

• About 50/barrel of profit will total 50 x 1.3
  trillion 65 trillion world-wide over the 44
  years. About 1.5 trillion/yr
  
• The November OPEC summit this year illustrated
  the worlds new power leaders. With over 70
  Trillion of windfall profits coming in the next
  generation, these leaders are setting an
  important world agenda
• Using a similar scheme to UNIFIL (Lebanon UN
  peacekeepers) a UN presence could be established
  in the Old City using 1,000 UN security forces
  personnel for an initial presence
• Cost would be approximately 56 mil/yr for this
  initial force, a tiny dent in the huge windfall
  profits to be had by the OPEC nations
  
• The UN peacekeepers currently in Lebanon are
  experienced in the region and language and are
  welcomed and liked by the Lebanese people
  
• This small force would allow UNESCO to finally
  make progress towards turning over control of
  these vitally important sites to an
  internationally accepted controlling authority
• This UN presence will also assist in removing IAF
  control from Jerusalem city borders/checkpoints
  and help a transition back to established
  territory lines
• Making this a high profile event will help the
  investing nations gain support from others
  

23
Jerusalem the Old City

• In 1947, the British government decided to
  withdraw from the Palestine Mandate. The UN
  General Assembly approved what was came to be
  known as the 1947 UN Partition Plan dividing the
  territory into two states, Jewish and Arab,
  giving about half the area to each state.
  Jerusalem was planned to be an international
  region administered by the UN to avoid conflict
  over its status. The Arab leadership rejected the
  plan and launched a guerilla war, now regarded as
  the first phase of Israels War of Independence.

24
PHASE III from Israeli-Palestinian Jerusalem
working group PERMANENT STATUS AGREEMENT AND
END OF THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT

• The aim of this stage is to bring Jerusalem to
  its permanent status as two capitals for two
  States through negotiations with the assistance
  of the Quartet to bring about a resolution to
  the permanent status of the Holy Places to
  inaugurate the Palestinian Jerusalem
  municipality, to conduct elections for the
  Palestinian municipality to create policing and
  security regimes for the City of Jerusalem to
  satisfy and end all claims including property
  claims and disputes and to bring about an end to
  the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• Quartet assisted negotiations will be held on the
  permanent status of Jerusalem based on the
  following principles
  
• United Nations Security Council Resolution 242
  applies to Jerusalem.
  
• Jerusalem is the shared capital for two States
  Israel and Palestine.
  
• Sovereignty in Jerusalem will be divided into
  specific territorial areas while maintaining a
  principle of an open city in Jerusalem.
  
• Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem are
  entitled to full citizenship of the State of
  Palestine.
  
• During Phase III the following processes will
  take place
  
• Convening an international conference of experts
  on the future of Jerusalem.
  
• Further assumption and consolidation of municipal
  responsibilities and authorities to Palestinian
  bodies leading to the inauguration of a full
  Palestinian Jerusalem municipality.
• Creation of a liaison mechanism between the two
  Jerusalem municipalities.
  
• Creating a coordinated and mutually agreed
  policing regime in Jerusalem incorporating a
  Palestinian police force in Palestinian areas and
  possibilities for joint policing with the
  assistance of the international community in
  sensitive areas.
• Joint technical groups assisted by the
  International Community will be established to
  ensure the sustainability of the principles
  enumerated above.
• The centrality of Jerusalem is key to ensuring
  the successful implementation of the Road Map and
  permanent status agreements.
  
• It is our belief that in order to ensure the
  success of the Road Map, similar Road Maps must
  be devised for the other main permanent status
  issues mainly the issues of refugees, borders and
  settlements.

25
What the borders should represent
What the borders are like presently
Major area of difference
26
Through the combination of Funding and Support

• Peace can be realized in the West Bank, Gaza
  Strip, and the soon to be International city of
  Jerusalem
  

These walls can be brought down
..while the world strives to preserve these walls