The Saudi-brokered Arab Peace Initiative, which was endorsed by the Arab League’s 22 members during the March 2002 Beirut summit and re-endorsed at the 2007 and at the 2017 Arab League summits , outlined comprehensive steps to ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Arab leaders collectively offered Israel recognition of its right to exist and a normalisation of diplomatic ties in exchange for its complete withdrawal from Arab lands captured since 1967(including the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and Lebanon).
The plan, first floated by King Abdullah, then crown prince of Saudi Arabia, called for the restoration of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital and a “fair solution” for the 3.8 million Palestinian refugees, including but not limited to the Syrian Golan Heights and Israeli-occupied territory in southern Lebanon.
US has also appreciated the Saudi peace plan.
UN resolutions 242 and 338
The Saudi plan is based on UN resolutions 242 and 338 which collectively called for Israeli withdrawal in exchange for peaceful ties with its Arab neighbours and the “respect for the right of every state in the area to live in peace within secure and recognised boundaries”.
It also reaffirmed an Arab League resolution taken in June 1996 at the Cairo Extraordinary Arab Summit that “a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East is the strategic option of the Arab countries, to be achieved in accordance with international legality, and which would require a comparable commitment on the part of the Israeli government”.
Response towards Arab Peace Initiative
The Arab League proposed the Arab Peace Initiative at the height of the second intifada in 2002.
Though the plan was supported by George Bush, the then US president, and Tony Blair, the then British prime minister, it was opposed by factions in both the Arab and Israeli camps.
Syria opposed the use of the term “normalisation”, while Palestinian factions such as the armed wing of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade rejected the Saudi plan outright.
The plan also did not receive full diplomatic backing as only 10 of the 22 heads of state were able to attend the Beirut summit.
On the same day the plan was announced in Beirut, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 20 people and injured more than 160 others at the Park Hotel in Netanya, Israel.
Operation Defensive Shield
On March 29, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield, a massive Israeli military operation in the West Bank, in response to the Netanya attack. Israeli military forces briefly occupied Ramallah, Jenin, and Nablus. More than 500 Palestinians and 29 Israeli soldiers were killed in the four-week military operation.
Resurfacing of Arab Peace Initiative in 2007
The Saudi-initiated peace plan did not resurface as a viable deal until the Arab League summit in Riyadh in March 2007. This time, 21 heads of state attended the summit (Libya did not send a delegation) and fully re-endorsed the peace plan.
Though Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, endorsed the plan, Ismail Haniya, the then Palestinian prime minister, abstained.
The European Union, the US and the UN fully backed the plan as the only means forward.
Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, said: “The Arab peace initiative is one of the pillars of the peace process … it sends a signal that the Arabs are serious about achieving peace.”
Israeli reaction on Arab Peace Initiative
The Israeli government under Ariel Sharon from 2002 to 2006 rejected the initiative as a “non-starter” because it required Israel to withdraw to pre-June 1967 borders.
Though Ehud Olmert , the Israeli prime minister (from 2006 to 2009), supported the plan, the official Israeli response says there are several items in the Saudi-brokered plan which are unacceptable.
Israeli peace negotiators have objected to the repatriation of some 3.8 million Palestinian refugees.
In 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed tentative support for the Initiative, but in 2018, he rejected it as a basis for future negotiations with the Palestinians.
PRACTICE QUESTIONS
QUES . Consider the following statements : UPSC PRELIMS 2023
Statement-I : Israel has established diplomatic relations with some Arab States.
Statement-II : The ‘Arab Peace Initiative’ Mediated by Saudi Arabia was signed by Israel and Arab League.
Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?
(a) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement II is the correct explanation for
Statement-I
(b) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement II is not the correct explanation for
Statement-I
(c) Statement-I is correct but Statement II is incorrect
(d) Statement-I is incorrect but Statement-II is correct
Ans (c) Israel did not signed it.
