A Presentation of the Geneva Accord

Between Israel and PLO

With Reference to Precedent Agreements

 

 

First Part

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Preliminary Notes. 2

2. Geneva Accords as a Bilateral Treaty. 3

3. The Palestinian State. 3

4. The cooperation Between the Parties. 4

 

 

 

Fribourg 16 November 2003

Asem Khalil

 

 

Asem Khalil. Born in Zababdeh, West Bank/the Occupied Palestinian Territories on 1976. B.A. in Philosophy (1997), B.A./Master/PhD. in Law (Utriusque Iuris) from the Lateran University in Rome, 2003. Now, preparing a thesis to obtain Ph.D. in Public Law, from the University of Fribourg/Switzerland. Proposed title of the thesis: "The Constituent Power of the Palestinian People". For comments, proposals, suggestions, please contact the author of the dissertation at: asemkhalil@gawab.com

1. Preliminary Notes

1.1. Mid-October saw the unveiling of a peace proposal that members of the Israeli leftist opposition and Palestinian officials have been working on for the past two-and-a-half years. The initiative was spearheaded by Oslo architect Yossi Beilin on the Israeli side and former minister Yasser Abed Rabbo for the Palestinians[1].

1.2. This agreement will be signed in Geneva the first of December 2003, but is unofficial, since the Israeli part is not the representative of the government of Israel. The fact that is unofficial does not mean necessarily irrelevance since intends to obtain (and seems to success) the parties populations’ approval and the international support.

1.3. The Geneva Accord is composed of a long preamble and 17 articles, and two maps. The agreement mentions a certain “Annex X” but the text is not published yet. The GA dedicates a good part for Jerusalem (Article 6) to refugees (Article 7) and to roads, religious sites and borders (articles 8-17). These arguments need a special consideration and will be object of our near future studies. This article is limited to the first five articles, and intends presenting this agreement. 

1.4. In the Geneva Accord and in the present article the term “parties” means Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the representative of the Palestinian people. When an Article number is mentioned here it refers to Geneva Agreement, unless specified differently.

1.5. In the present article, there are some abbreviations: GA for Geneva Accord, OA for Oslo Agreements, MF for Multinational Forces, IVG for Implementation and Verification Group and PLO for Palestine Liberation Organisation. 

2. Geneva Accords as a Bilateral Treaty

2.1. The GA is an agreement within the Oslo peace process (see preamble of GA) but supersedes all precedent agreements (article 2.5). The main point of the GA is that Israel shall recognise the state of Palestine and that the new Palestinian state shall recognise the state of Israel; while the OA was based mainly on the recognition between Israel and PLO.

2.1. Article 1 of GA is the key article. With this agreements, the claims of the parties, and the end of the conflict. An example of possible contradiction will be the question of refugees that the third draft of Palestinian constitution, article 13.b: the “State of Palestine shall strive to apply the legitimate right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their homes, and to obtain compensation in accordance with the United Nations Resolution 194 of 1948, and the principles of International Law, through negotiations, and political and legal channels”.

2.3. We read in article 2.2. that “the state of Palestine shall be the successor to the PLO with all its rights and obligations”. This Agreement seems to be a PLO auto-execution. The right to eliminate the PLO is the right of those who had established it, or to those designed by it; now, the right to take decisions of that importance is not the right of the Executive committee of the PLO but of the Palestinian National Council. This means that the PLO representatives are expressing an international obligation but needs to use constitutional arrangements; as such the international obligation are not directly binding to the Palestinian institutions.

2.4. Article 2: “Without prejudice to the commitments undertaken by them in this Agreement, relations between Israel and Palestine shall be based upon the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.” This means that parties decides to prevail mutual recognition and yet the mutual compromises over the international legacy.

3. The Palestinian State

3.1. While the Oslo agreement has no reference to territory of the Palestinian state, since it does not envision it, the GA specifies that the borders are those of June 1967, in accordance with UNSC Resolution 242 and 338 with the reciprocal modifications as set forth in an attached map[2].

3.2. The withdrawal of Israeli forces and the transfer of authority are also regulated. Sovereignty and territorial integrity shall be respected.  This means also the necessity to evacuate most of settlements as agreed upon (article 4.5); the state of Palestine will be the only entitled of the evacuated settlement structures. Still, the evacuation and the withdrawal of Israeli forces and security personnel and equipment are to be partially in stages as agreed by parties and specified in annex X (article 5.7)

3.3. The establishment of a corridor between West Bank and Gaza that will be under Israeli sovereignty that is permanently opened and administered by Palestinians (Article 4.6.).

3.4. According to GA the Palestinian State shall be a “non-militarized state, with a strong security force” (article 5.3). A multinational Force shall be established and deployed in the state of Palestine (article 5.6) and accomplish the duties specified in the agreement, under the supervision of the IVG. The MF shall enter into the appropriate Status of Forces Agreement with the state of Palestine.

3.5. A joint committee will monitor the crossing borders (as it was the case in Oslo but then cancelled by the Israeli government after the second Intifada). The difference is that the IVG shall review or cancel these provisions after five years (article 5.12.d).

4. The cooperation Between the Parties

4.1. Article 2.n.7-10 presents an important element in a peace resolution: the cooperation between parties, in points of common interest: not only in economy (2.8.) and security (2.9.), but also in legislature institutions, and civil society (2.7). This will help parties to promote real equality between parties.

4.2. Article 5 of GA is dedicated to the security arrangements. The parties shall not use war, terrorism against each other. They shall not make part of a coalition that encourages these acts. Parties have the responsibility in their correspondent states to refrain militias acting in their territories, although they keep mutual consultation on this argument (article 5.4); while OA gave Israel a full authority to act against terrorism wherever, without limits[3].

4.3. The parties in GA agreed to establish a mutual committee (ministerial level) that guide the implementation of this agreement (2.11). As it was in Oslo, this agreement gives priority to mutual agreement than to international law, or international arbitrage. Still, the novelty of GA is the establishment an Implementation and Verification Group (IVG) that will coordinate with the mentioned committee (article 3).

4.4. This IVG shall be composed of the Quadrate (USA, Russia, EU, UN) and other parties agreed upon by parties. The IVG will guide also a Multinational force, and shall establish a dispute settlement mechanism (article 3.2.f.).