Proposal for peace in the Middle East

Walid Salem presents the Bring Peace Together Project, whose summit was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on March 28th in order to discuss a comprehensive solution to create peace in the Middle East. The following is a formal letter and call to action of the Bring Peace Together Project, presenting its plan for the recognition, normalization, and security of Israel by 22 Arab countries in exchange for a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194. Read on to find out how you can become involved in this unique opportunity to create peace in the Middle East.

Walid Salem is a political analyst and the director of Panorama, the Centre for the Dissemination of Democracy and Community Development, East Jerusalem office.

ISRAELI- PALESTINIAN JOINT STATEMENT
On the 28th of this month, the Arab League Summit was held in Riyadh/ Saudi Arabia. One of the questions that faced the summit was: What to do in order to promote the Arab Peace Initiative adopted by the Arab Summit of Beirut 2002? (Attached).

The significance of the Arab Peace Initiative is that it provides all interested and concerned parties with a comprehensive solution process in order to solve all the aspects of the Middle East conflict. For Israel its significance is that it provides Israel with recognition, normalization and security guaranteed by 22 Arab countries together, provided it withdraws from all the Arab territories occupied in 1967 and provided it adheres to “an agreed upon just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem that is achieved in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194”. For the Palestinians it means the establishment of a Palestinian independent state based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital. For the Syrians it means the return of the Golan Heights.

With the impasse in the peace process, and with the failure of the gradual solutions in the last 15 years, the Arab Peace Initiative provides the alternative way-out towards comprehensive peace and reconciliation.

We, the undersigned, call upon you to immediately act in cooperation with the civil society organizations in your country and with your network in order to:

1) Urge all Middle Eastern governments and in particular the Palestinian and the Israeli ones to join the Arab Peace Initiative in order to open the door for a comprehensive peace process, and to a final solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

2) Urge Israeli and Palestinian civil societies to mobilize Israeli and Palestinian public opinions in support of this process and its declared objectives.

3) Call your government to act in that direction.

Please also develop any other activities that you feel necessary through statements, joint statements, meetings with the decision makers, or any other type of activities.

In order to inform the others about what we are doing in this regard, please send us the information to walid@panoramacenter.org, or Izhak: schnell@post.tau.ac.il, Saman samankhoury@pdf-palestine.org, Dan: jacobson@post.tau.ac.il

Good Luck and Best Regards

Walid Salem, Izhak Schnell, Saman Khoury, Dan Jacobson
Bringing Peace Together Project