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To be a State or Not to Be a State, That Is the Question

© lawhawk

The Palestinian Authority has been warned by a number of Arab States to refrain from announcing the declaration of an independent Palestinian State on May 4, 1999. Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasir Arafat has been making these statements over the last several months as the peace process and implementation of the Wye Conference Agreements have stalled. Egypt, Syria and Jordan, along with several other countries have suggested that the Palestinian Authority look for some other solution to the issue besides declaring statehood. Egypt, who in the past has supported Statehood, has recently changed its position to oppose it, suggesting that the Palestinians announce instead that the Palestinians have the right to declare statehood - not declaring statehood at that time.

This could be interpreted as being a sign that the US has been able to sway a number of Arab leaders in the region to keep the peace process moving, albeit slowly, in order to keep the pressure on the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to come to an agreement on key issues. These issues include security and transfer of territory from Israeli occupation to Palestinian Authority control as well as increased autonomy and control over economic and civil affairs.

Throughout the last 100 years, Palestinian and Jewish groups have been made promises by the British, the Americans and the UN relating to the kinds of territory and where they can establish a national homeland. These promises often overlap, coincide, reverse or block previous promises to such an extent that both the Israelis and Palestinian Authority believe they have legitimate claims to large swaths of territory, including Jerusalem (which Israel annexed following the 1967 Six Day War from the Jordanians).

Chairman Arafat continues to state that any Palestinian State formed will have Jerusalem as its capital. This runs totally against stated Israeli policy that maintains that Jerusalem will never be divided as a city again. One should note that Arafat's statements relating to Jerusalem often come during speeches to Arab and Palestinian audiences while maintaining a more moderate and non-confrontational tone where he is confronted with the issue by Israeli or other audiences. This back-and-forth stance by Arafat has made life extremely difficult for him as the Israeli government continues to regard Arafat as inciting violence and fostering unwarranted tension within the Palestinian community through promises that can't be kept.

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