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TITLE: Statement Of Core Principles and Positions Regarding The On-Going Israeli-Palestinian Conflict |
AUTHOR: |
ORG: The Alliance of Middle Eastern Scientists and Physicians |
DATE: February 24, 2001 |
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Please read, consider and forward widely our statement below. We hope that it will advance a new momentum of solidarity for justice and peace. To support it with your signature go to: On-line Petition We, members and supporters of the Alliance of Middle Eastern Scientists and Physicians, invite all people who are concerned with the current crisis in the Middle East, to carefully consider our statement below and support it with signatures. This statement was composed together by Palestinian, Israeli, Arab and Jewish academics and professionals who are fully committed to their peoples and united in their hope for peace. Therefore we believe that it presents a feasible formula to resolve the conflict. We believe that the aspirations and claims of both the Palestinian and Jewish peoples to their common homeland are legitimate and reconcilable. A reconciliation process, which will enable peaceful coexistence and a political agreement to share the land, must be based on mutual recognition and adherence to universal values of basic human rights, equality and justice. We believe that the collapse of the Oslo process and the eruption of the Al Aqsa Intifadah are the results of the continuous occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people by Israel, and of the inequality inherent to negotiations under occupation. Oslo's greatest shortcoming was its failure to guarantee the establishment of a continuous and viable independent Palestinian state in the territories seized by Israel in 1967. We believe that a new peace process should be reconstructed on the basis of the following principles: 1. As urgent measures to end the violent conflict, Israel shall immediately hold fire, withdraw its army, artillery, tanks and helicopters away from Palestinian population areas, and lift the blockade over Palestinian cities and villages. Israel shall immediately stop any unilateral action such as settlement construction, land confiscation, home demolition or uprooting of trees. The Palestinian Authority will immediately halt armed activities. It and the Israeli government will both do their utmost to prevent any further attacks of all sorts. 2. Negotiations shall resume on the basis of UN Resolutions 181, 242 and 338, which established the principle and borders of a two-state solution to the conflict. Israel shall withdraw from the territories occupied in 1967 and evacuate the settlements in these territories. Any minor changes to the borders must be agreed upon freely and in good faith by both Israel and Palestine. 3. Jerusalem and Al Quds, in the western and eastern sides of the pre-1967 border shall be recognized as the capital cities of Israel and Palestine. The walled old city shall come under international sovereignty and its inhabitants shall be citizens of Israel or Palestine according to their nationality. 4. Palestine and Israel shall fully recognize the right of both the Palestinian and the Israeli peoples for self-determination, safety and wellbeing, and respect the borders between the countries. Once normalized, peaceful conditions have been achieved, the borders shall be open for both peoples; in all circumstances, each state shall guarantee the safety and free access of all people to their religious and historical sites. 5. Israel shall acknowledge its major contribution to the displacement of the Palestinian population who became refugees in 1948, and recognize the right of these refugees to return and to be compensated for their losses, as stated in UN resolution 194. An international mechanism, including Israel and Palestine, shall be established to find a just and lasting resolution of the refugee problem. This mechanism will assist the refugees to resettle and rehabilitate in Israel, Palestine or the countries in which they currently reside, considering the ability of each country to accommodate the refugees and the principle of self-determination for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples. 6. Israel shall assist Palestine in building medical, economical and educational infrastructures, which have suffered over years of occupation and neglect, in order to decrease the disparities between the peoples and develop good neighborly relationships. 7. Israel and Palestine will actively engage and support an honest and sincere public process of education and reconciliation that will create mutual understanding, respect and appreciation to cultural diversity, and will enable peaceful coexistence for the two peoples. 8. Israel and Palestine will ensure full equality to all their citizens in all aspects of their lives. 9. After the establishment of a Palestinian state and the accomplishment of full mutual recognition between the two nations, the possibility will be open for the two states to decide together on their future as two separate states, a confederation, or one undivided and pluralistic state for all its inhabitants.We call upon the international community, the American government and the Jewish and Palestinian communities to assert their influence, support the implementation of these principles, and assist the construction of a secure and prosperous Palestinian state. This is the only guarantee to the existence, security and prosperity of Israel. We believe that implementation of these principles in good faith, generosity and consistency with universal moral values, will eliminate the motivation behind acts of violence and replace fear, anger and frustration with mutual understanding, respect and trust. We believe that this process will ensure peaceful coexistence and a bright future of prosperity and cultural enrichment to Palestinians, Israelis and all other people who are destined to live together in the region. THE ALLIANCE OF MIDDLE EASTERN SCIENTISTS AND PHYSICIANS is a group of Arab, Palestinian, Jewish and Israeli professionals based at the University of California, San Francisco. Our mission is to promote mutual understanding, respect and trust among our peoples through dialogue and medical collaboration, and to advance a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. END |