The International Relations of the Middle East in the 21st Century: Patterns of Continuity and Change by Tareq Y. Ismael

Author:Tareq Y. Ismael [Ismael, Tareq Y.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9780754615064
Google: 8VZtAAAAMAAJ
Goodreads: 1763168
Publisher: Ashgate
Published: 2000-01-15T10:17:36+00:00

Implementation

Many fundamental issues with respect to the peace process are unresolved at this stage, including the degree to which a successor government in Israel or a different Palestinian (or PLO) leadership would be bound by agreements negotiated and partially implemented, especially if important obligations were breached by either side. On this matter, the diplomatic and military disparities between the two sides constrain the Palestinians while giving the Israelis virtually unrestricted discretion to reinterpret their obligations. Since the DOP, and other arrangements, is not technically a treaty, its international character can always be denied, although the involvement of other governments, the formalization derived from the White House signing, and the UNGA endorsement create a strong presumption that both sides have good faith legal obligations to carry out the agreed arrangements without retaining any option to repudiate. Even Netanyahu has indicated his acceptance of this line of reasoning. Of course, the test of the political viability of the process has now been brought to the fore by the drastic change of government in Israel. If Arafat were to lose control of the PLO another challenge to the process would be posed. If, and when, permanent status negotiations get underway such fundamental long-term issues as statehood, sovereignty, Jerusalem, settlements and external refugees will provide the substantive test of political viability.

During the interim period, with the leadership on the two sides stable and unconditionally committed to the negotiated process, inter-governmental disputes of even a serious character were resolved by diplomacy. On this basis the Palestinian Authority gradually acquired a de facto statist character and considerable international legitimacy even if Israel continued to deny the de jure implications of statehood and maintained a huge security presence in relation to the settlements that amounted to seriously encroaching upon the sort of territorial supremacy normally associated with statehood. The longer the interim process drags on and the more extremist opposition on both sides gains control of subsequent stages of diplomacy, the less likely it is that the process can be maintained in its present form.

The provision for Palestinian elections (DOP, Article III) and the constitutional arrangements proposed for the Palestinian Authority in the Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have been carried out after considerable delay. Whether the transfers of political authority that has so far taken place will remain acceptable without further progress toward self-determination is in doubt. How long will Palestinians be subject to autocratic and inept rule deprived of political participation, of human rights, and of basic material necessities abide by the constraints on their struggle? Suppose further, as seems likely, that neither Israel, the United States, the UN, nor even other Arab Governments lend support to Palestinian allegations of non-implementation, especially if other aspects of the process are going forward relatively smoothly. How, then, can the rights of the Palestinian people be upheld? It is here that the informal roles of NGOs in reinforcing governmental and inter-governmental procedures are likely to be crucial. It would be of great legal relevance

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