Why in News?
The Israel-Palestine peace plan or the West Asia peace plan is the proposal unveiled by U.S. President Donald Trump.
What is Mr. Trump trying to do?
- This plan seeks to address most of the contentious issues in the conflict.
- The solutions, Mr. Trump has proposed to almost all of these issues, favour the Israeli positions.
- He seeks to give to the Israelis, Jerusalem and part of the West Bank.
- With his plan, he is actually pushing to revive the stalled two-state talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but on his own terms.
What is the plan?
- The Palestinian refugees, who were forced out from their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed the declaration of the state of Israel in the historic Palestine, would not be allowed to return.
- Jerusalem would be the undivided capital of Israel, with the Palestine gaining its capital in the east of the city.
- In return, Israel would freeze further settlement activities on the West Bank for 4 years (the time for negotiations).
- During this period, the Palestinian Authority should dismiss its current complaints at the International Criminal Court against Israel and refrain itself from taking further actions.
- It should crack down on certain terrorist groups like the Hamas.
What are the proposed land swaps?
- The plan proposes some land swap for the Israeli annexation of the Jewish settlements of the West Bank as well as the Jordan Valley.
- It seeks to enlarge Gaza and connect the strip with the West Bank through a tunnel.
- The Arab towns in the southeast of Israel, which are close to Gaza, could become part of a future Palestinian state.
What the Palestine may get?
- Mr. Trump has also proposed $50 billion in investment over 10 years should Palestine accept the proposals.
- In the final settlement, Palestine would get control over more land than what it currently controls.
- (According to the Oslo Accords, the West Bank was divided into 3 areas and only one of them is under the direct control of the Palestinian Authority).
What does Palestine want?
- They want an independent, sovereign Palestinian state to be formed which will include the whole of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
- This Palestine position is backed by most of the world powers.
- Issues like the right of return of the Palestinian refugees are to be settled in final negotiations.
- But Mr. Trump has effectively rejected the Palestinian claims outright and asked them to make more compromises.
- He has denied the right of return of the Palestinian refugees, all for truncated sovereignty for the Palestinians in a state that would be practically surrounded by Israel.
What was the Palestine’s reaction?
- Unsurprisingly, the Palestinians had rejected the proposal as they say the Trump administration cannot be an impartial mediator for peace.
- This is because as the Trump administration recognised the disputed Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and supported the annexation of the settlements on the West Bank.
- The Trump plan seems to be underscoring this argument.
- It is virtually impossible for any Palestinian leader to sell these proposals to a people who have been resisting Israel’s occupation for decades.
Source: The Hindu
