New round of ‘peace talks’ are biased and lack a just frame of reference

(CHICAGO 07/31/2013) – The American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), a national grassroots organization dedicated to educating Americans about Palestine and its rich cultural and historical heritage, has grave concerns over the new round of “peace talks,” which took place in Washington DC Tuesday. While AMP supports every effort at achieving peace in the Holy Land, we take issue with the appointment of Israel lobbyist Martin Indyk as the US special envoy to lead the process, as well as the lack of reference for the talks themselves. 

Twenty years after the Oslo Peace Accords were signed, which was to have produced a Palestinian state within five years, the facts on the ground for Palestinians have deteriorated greatly. Since 1993, Palestinians have lost their freedom of movement, must endure separation into canton-like Bantustans by the Apartheid Wall, bypass roads, and hundreds of checkpoints. Thousands – including children as young has five years old - have been randomly arrested and detained, homes and villages have been destroyed and water resources have been plundered all while settlement construction continues to multiply exponentially. Israel’s siege on Gaza has plunged the 1.7 million Palestinians there into a humanitarian crisis and brought their economy to a halt, with an unemployment rate of nearly 40 percent in some areas. In the West Bank, unemployment stands at about 24 percent, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Palestinians are a fractured society and cut off from each other in Gaza, the West Bank, inside Israel and in Diaspora. 

Now, the parameters of this new round of talks not only ignores the crucial framework for peace – the cessation and dismantlement of the settlements; the right of return for all refugees and free access to Jerusalem – but the man chosen as US special envoy to lead the talks is a pro-Israeli lobbyist, who has worked for AIPAC, the largest pro-Israel lobby organization in the US, and also its subsidiary the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Mr. Indyk also was US ambassador to Israel under President Bill Clinton. 

Tuesday’s talks were only to discuss the location, content and scope of further negotiations. In other words, the conversation continued the same tired old dialogue plaguing Palestinians since Oslo. The fact Secretary of State John Kerry chose Mr. Indyk, who is so strongly pro-Israel, undermines the idea that the US can be an honest broker between Palestinians and Israelis. 

“What we have here is one side with undeniable advantage in both hard and soft power – Israel – bolstered now by the fact the convening party has brought in Mr. Indyk, a diplomat with a decidedly pro-Israel bias,” said political analyst and AMP national board member Dr. Osama Abu Irshaid. “The Palestinians are an occupied people. They are being asked to make concessions by the very people who occupy them and America’s pro-Israel envoy. Where’s the trust? Where’s the level playing field?”

If Secretary Kerry had wanted to convey that the United States was serious about being an honest broker, he could have chosen any number of academics or Middle East experts without the kind of biased baggage Indyk brings to the table. But as it stands now, these talks offer nothing more than the status quo – which means that Israel will continue appropriating ever more Palestinian land illegally while Palestinians continue to suffer.