Hoping against hope By Tarek Hassan Palestinians are waiting for the results of talks next week between US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Palestine President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The negotiations, which are to take place in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, come in the wake of US envoy Dennis Ross's unsuccessful shuttle tour which ended last Saturday. Ross was unable to achieve any significant progress towards the implementation of the US initiative regarding the redeployment of Israeli forces in the West Bank. Nabil Abu Rudina, advisor to the Palestinian president, said that Ross's tour ended without having resolved any of the points in the US initiative, which calls on Israel to withdraw from 13 per cent of the West Bank. Nevertheless, the Palestinians still entertain hopes that the US will pressure Israel to implement the plan. Abu Rudina said he believed that US President Bill Clinton and Albright will try their best next week to resolve the differences. "The results of these communications will bring us to a crossroads leading to either an opening or a dead end," Abu Rudina said. Although the US administration has tried to convince the Palestinian leadership that there is now an opportunity to reach an agreement, the Palestinians believe that if Israel does not agree to implement the US initiative, no such opportunity presents itself. "This opportunity is still very much up in the air because the Israelis up to now have not given a clear, positive response to the US initiative... they are still trying to find a way to get around redeployment and the timetable for its implementation by raising illusory security demands," said Abu Rudina. He added that the meetings in New York may proceed in numerous directions which might contribute to improving the Israeli position with regard to the US initiative. If so, he said, that would lend a new dynamic to the US drive. According to Abu Rudina, no arrangements have yet been made for a meeting between Arafat and Netanyahu because any such meeting is contingent upon the progress made in New York towards convincing the Israelis to accept the US plan. He added that Arafat's speech to the General Assembly will clarify the nature of the current stage, whether progress has been made or whether the parties have reached a dead end. Arafat will then ask the international community to recognise a Palestinian state -- which Arafat has said he will declare in May next year, the date when the interim period established by the Oslo Accords comes to an end -- and call for an Arab summit to assess the situation. Meanwhile, the prevalent view in Palestine is that Israel is systematically committing hostile acts against the Palestinians in order to create an explosive situation that will forestall an agreement. Cities in the West Bank, notably Ramallah, have seen sporadic street battles between Palestinians and occupation forces in the wake of the deaths of brothers Adel and Emad Awadallah, members of the military wing of the opposition Hamas movement. Both were killed by Israeli troops two weeks ago. Tensions were inflamed further when an Israeli settler killed a Palestinian student in an area under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Israeli authorities refused to turn the assailant over to the PA. David Bar-Illan, a top Netanyahu adviser, said there were no stipulations in the Oslo Accords regarding the surrender of Israeli citizens to the PA. Consequently, demonstrations erupted on Friday near the West Bank town of Al-Bireh, hometown of the Awadallah brothers and where the Palestinian student was killed. More than 2,000 Hamas supporters called for revenge. The demonstration's leaders slammed security cooperation between Israel and the PA and called on the latter to end all negotiations for a peaceful settlement. "The Palestinians want to continue the struggle to eliminate the Zionist entity," senior Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal told the crowd. Meshaal was speaking by telephone from his base in Amman through a loudspeaker. Hundreds of mourners buried the student in the village of Ein Arik while chanting "long live the rifle". Written on a wall in the village and signed by the Palestinian Fatah movement were the words "shame to those who support co-existence with the occupiers." Adding salt to the wound, an Israeli court on Sunday ordered the release of the Israeli settler who shot the student, claiming that he was "an upstanding citizen" and was acting in self-defence when a stone was thrown at his car. Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, secretary-general of the Palestinian Council of Ministers, described the killer's release as "a blatant invitation to settlers to murder Palestinians without risk of punishment... [it is] an institution of the law of the jungle." Commenting on the judge's description of the settler, Palestinian presidential advisor Ahmed Al-Tibi asked, "Why does the judge admire this man so much? Is it because he murdered a Palestinian, or is it the way he held his gun and the number of bullets he used, or is it because he used his weapon against defenceless Palestinians?" Al-Tibi said the incident demonstrated that "the revolving door policy for murderers" is the Israeli government's way of indulging the settlers and that "the rulings issued by the Israeli courts have proven time after time that the judicial system which Israel boasts to the world is racist."
