Palestinian resistance group talks peace

Israel & Palestine Forum

Palestinian resistance group talks peace

Monday 21 June 2004, 2:47 Makka Time, 23:47 GMT

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/7FA42748-CCF5-42BC-8C48-36F2B93232CF/40721/797F5F66B9CA468B873DB390262DA5BD.jpg
Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades wants a return to 1967 borders

A Palestinian resistance group has for the first time in its history outlined terms for calling an end to operations against Israel.


The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades drew up an agenda for negotiations with the Palestinian leadership in the coming days, according to Brigades commander Zakaria Zubaidi.

Speaking to journalists in Jenin, Zubaidi said the document was the first ever produced by his group and would be sent to President Yasir Arafat and PM Ahmad Quraya.

"It will be discussed with them tomorrow," he added.

The commander confirmed any negotiations would include an end to the blockade on Arafat's headquarters, an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 Green Line, the dismantling of all illegal settlements and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Israel would also have to return the bodies of fighters killed in action, and allow the return of all Palestinians exiled to Gaza or elsewhere.

"If Israel is ready to do this, I will order all operations against Israelis to stop," said Zubaidi, whose name figures prominently on Israel's most-wanted list.

The document also calls for the Palestinian Authority to put its house in order, Zubaidi added.

PM's policy

His comments came just hours after Quraya ruled out any move to dissolve the group - which is linked to Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement - in an interview published by the London-based Arabic daily Asharq al-Awsat.

The Palestinian PM has been trying to persuade groups such as the al-Aqsa Brigades and the Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad to halt armed resistance against Israel.

Al-Aqsa Brigades pledges loyalty to Arafat and his Fatah organisation although they operate autonomously and have embarrassed the Palestinian leadership with numerous attacks.

Link-

Al'Jazeera - http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exe...6F2B93232CF.htm

As usual, the Palestinian peace proposal includes demands on one side, and no promises on the other, aside from one group, who doesn't speak for all Palestinians militants, to stop its terrorism.

In order for there to be peace, there has to be a negotiation. Neither side will get everything they want from the other.

AMB knows very well that Israel, and most particularly this regime, will not accept these demands, not in exchange for, at best, one militant group stopping its attacks. Hence, the only reason to make them is to create the illusion that AMB supports a peace process. More propaganda.

The only serious peace process needs to start with a group that can speak for all Palestinians, and must be a sincere proposal, not one that clearly will not be accepted.

- woolfe

Palestinian terrorist groups talk peace?

hah.

Let's be real here. The wall and Israel's incursions are causing problems for them. And being prisoners of their own pride they need to look tough while negotiating some sort of peace. Either that or they will look "defeated" and that they cannot have.

Secondly, you make an excellent point Woolf. There is no way they would accept this agreement without conditions from AMB alone because it would do nothing for Israel's securities.

Who does speak for all Palestinians? I know who seems to be the paper negotiators but the real power appears to belong to the terrorist orgs there, not the P.A. So why in the world would Israel start negotiations with AMB as a starting point?

According to the Article, Al'Aqsa Martyrs Brigades would put an end to operations against Israel, inst that good enough?

No, it isn't. Even if Israel could trust AMB, do they speak for Hamas? Do they speak for Islamic Jihad? No. The Palestinian militant groups are not unified. The Palestinians need an effective government with a monopoly of military force. Then and only then will Israel have someone to negotiate with.

- woolfe

I think you're all being a bit hasty. This is surely an encouraging piece of news, hopefully Israel will pull out of Gaza as soon as possible, and stop building that damn wall.

Well, they're definitely pulling out of Gaza. I doubt they'll stop building the wall though. What they need to do is pull their settlements so they don't have to build walls around those. As far as walling of their border, it's a unfortunable development, but I don't see them as having a choice.

They do have a point, all groups have to willing to negotaite for Peace, but Israel hasnt shown any interest in doing so either.

It seems that Israel expects the Palestinians to stop terror, that seems to be all they go on about, but then they completely ignore what is required of them.

They STILL carry on building the annexation wall.
They STILL carry on building illegal settlements.
They STILL carry on occupying the West Bank and Gaza illegally.
They STILL carry on violating UN resolutions in definance of the world.

Israel expects the Palestinians to do what they want, whilst not providing any compromises of their own.

The object is to stop the violence. You cannot hope to accomplish anything else until this is done.

The wall is legit, and if it dips into Palestinian territory that's unfortunate.
There are negotiations to end settlements in Gaza.
West Bank and Gaza was lost in a war. Just more crying by Palestinians
Why aren't there any resolutions against Palestinians? I know, because they are right, right?

Israel simply expect the violence to stop before negotiating any deals. I don't see how you can expect them to when they are being bombed in their cities. However, the wall has slowed this to a great deal so for Israel it's working. Why would they care if Palestinians wanted the wall down or not? Some simply don't want any wall there no matter where it runs.

I guess when you can't blow up a restaurant as easily as you did yesterday, resentment can settle in even more.

Peace my ass.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24575861.htm

TW, the land had originally been called Canaan, named after Abraham’s uncle twice removed. When Abe had settled there, about 2000 B.C., the Canaanites, Perizzites, and a few other tribes inhabited the land. By the time of the Exodus, in the mid-1400s, they had been joined by the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites. Between Joshua’s conquest, begun in 1406, and Israel’s golden age under David, about 1000 B.C., these peoples had all but disappeared.
But as the Jews had risen in numbers and power, two coastal nations had reigned in small niches in the north and south of the Promised Land. The Philistines were located near today’s Gaza, and the Phoenicians, in today’s Lebanon. The Assyrian conquest in the seventh century B.C., followed by the Babylonian invasion in the sixth, had not spared these seafaring peoples. They, like the Canaanites before them, had vanished without a trace.
Unlike the now-extinct Philistines, the Jews returned to Judea after seventy years of Babylonian captivity, only to witness successive waves of conquest. In 70 A.D., however, the Jews were once again exiled from their ancestral homeland. Finally, in a desperate attempt to sever the Jews’ emotional attachment to Judea, the Romans invented the name “Palestinia ” in 135 A.D. However, Israel’s national memory was not so easily obliterated. They never forgot that this rocky piece of ground between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea was their homeland, no matter what their overlords insisted on calling it.

After the fall of Rome, the moniker Palestinia was largely forgotten, a mere historical footnote. That is, until the end of World War I. Following the defeat of the Turks, the British dusted off the old Roman epithet, incorrectly referring to Judea as “Palestine.” The indigenous Arabs, who until that time had called the place Syria, took the name upon themselves, though they were genetically unrelated to the Philistines of old. But by calling themselves Palestinians and the land Palestine it caused the world to think it was theirs and that the Jews were trespassing. However, there have been no “Palestinian” people for the last 2,600 years. And there has never been a Palestinian state outside of Gaza.

I know you like to dismiss this, but do you have a response? What part is untrue?