The Arab League's says that without progress towards peace we should prepare for the worst, Dina Ezzat reports Today, Arab foreign ministers will meet at the headquarters of the Arab League for an extraordinary assembly that has one focus: Palestine. The topics: Israeli war crimes against Palestinians under occupation in Gaza, the fate of East Jerusalem that is subject to unchecked Israeli colonial measures, and the prospects, if any, for the resumption of peace talks. These issues will be discussed against the backdrop of a hesitant sense of optimism in the Arab world that the new US administration will be keen to deliver long pursued peace in the Middle East -- or at least to take a path that would eventually lead the region towards a just, fair and durable political settlement of the Arab Israeli struggle. "The foreign ministers will meet to consider specific documents, formulate positions and design a plan of action. The first document is the report of the international independent fact-finding mission that the Arab League delegated to the Gaza Strip to examine evidence for the involvement of the Israeli occupation army in committing war crimes against Palestinians under occupation during the last Israeli war on the Gaza Strip," said , chief of staff for Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. According to Youssef, a report written by the fact-finding mission reveals that the Israeli occupation army applied illegal collective punishment measures and engaged in indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on civilians under occupation. Moreover, Youssef said that the report revealed evidence that the Israeli occupation army deliberately terrorised civilians, destroyed property, bombed hospitals and ambulances and prevented the evacuation of the wounded. Furthermore, the report provides evidence of the use of weapons that cause unnecessary suffering. Youssef is not saying what type of legal action Arab states -- or the secretariat of the regional organisation -- is going to take. "Legal experts are deliberating this issue and then the ministers will decide on which course of action to take. But one thing is clear: those Israeli crimes will not go unpunished," he said. The second document that Arab ministers will be discussing in their meeting is a dossier that the Palestinian Authority will present on accelerated Israeli measures to separate East Jerusalem from the West Bank with the aim of cementing Israel's illegal annexation of Jerusalem. "Obviously, the Arab position, as it is stated in the Arab Peace Initiative, is that East Jerusalem should be the capital of the future independent Palestinian state. Now if Israel is eating up the territories of this part of the holy city by frantic colonisation activities and is demolishing Palestinian houses and excavating in holy sites at the same time, then we are talking about a very dim prospect for a fair settlement," Youssef said. He added that Arab ministers will contemplate a set of action-oriented steps "including the obvious political move of pursuing the prompt intervention of the UN Security Council" to confront the aggressive Israeli scheme to control East Jerusalem. Youssef is not ignorant of the fact that the UN Security Council has most often let down the Arabs. "Of course when we think of going to the UN Security Council we don't think that we will go to get everything fixed overnight. But it is about political responsibility, really," Youssef said. He added that if Arabs could get the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution that "at least" demands an end to "Israeli practices" -- including colonisation activities -- that would be a good outcome. Youssef would not commit as to whether or not Arab ministers would choose to petition the UN Security Council. "There are intensive consultations that are currently going on. President [Hosni] Mubarak, King Abdullah of Jordan and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have been in consultation. King Abdullah has met with US President Barack Obama and both President Mubarak and President Abbas will shortly be meeting with the American president. Egypt is also talking to Israel and the Israeli prime minister will visit the US. So the outcome of these talks will tell us where we will be going," Youssef said. For Youssef the issue is not only about suspending the construction of new Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territories but also preventing the extremist right- wing Israeli government from stifling the peace process once and for all. One way to do this is to bring up the conditions of the Quartet, "and this time demand that they are applied not just on the Palestinians, but also on the Israelis as well". For the past few years, the international community -- with the US at the forefront -- has demanded that for any Palestinian government to be recognised it has to be committed to previous peace agreements, to end "violence", and to recognise Israel. Today, Youssef said, there is an extreme right-wing government in Israel that does not accept the two-state solution or the outcome of the Annapolis Conference and that exercises horrifying violence against Palestinians under occupation. "Nobody could look to the Arabs, or for that matter the Palestinians, with a straight face and say that it is Palestinians who need to end violence -- not after the war on Gaza," Youssef said. He added: "And nobody can expect Palestinians to unanimously recognise Israel when Israel is run by a government that does not recognise the right of Palestinians to have their independent state." According to Youssef, "recognition has to be reciprocal and so should the commitment to previous agreements." "If Israel keeps getting away with everything that it does, no matter how gross of a violation to international law, then it is pointless, I think, to talk of hopes for Middle East peace. If there is no land left for the Palestinian to have a state on then what is the point of negotiations?" Youssef said. He added: "if no progress is secured on the peace-making front then it would not be possible to exclude gloomy scenarios of further violence, more wars and much more bloodshed."
