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Planned Madrid peace gathering collapses before even taking offf

Planned Madrid peace gathering collapses before even taking off
By Yoav Stern Haaretz 16 December 2007
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/934767.html

MADRID - An investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars, loads of
time
and countless attempts at intensive Spanish-brokered talks between
Israelis
and Palestinians went down the drain this past weekend, when a peace
gathering that was supposed to be held here collapsed before it could
even
get started. Spanish organizers grew tearful as they realized there was
no
possibility of bridging gaps between the various groups and of reaching
even
minimal discussion among the hawks - mostly members of the leftist camp
in
their countries.

The Forum for a Just Peace in the Middle East was supposed to convene
over
the weekend in a town near Madrid called Alcorcon, with the backing of
leftist parties and labor organizations. It was meant to be Spain’s
contribution to promoting talks between the sides. Advertisement

Spain, officials emphasize, is very interested in being involved in
advancing the peace process. Its foreign minister, Miguel Moratinos,
who is
handling the matter personally, said this week: “We managed to send men
to
the moon, but not to resolve this conflict. We must move forward.” But
it
looks like the failure of this forum will be laid at his door. The
background to this failure involves a struggle between the government
and
leftist organizations over responsibility for holding the meeting.

Contrary to the usual Mideast scenario, this time the camps did not
divide
along national lines. There were Israeli Jews and Palestinians in both,
but
ones who hold completely different positions. The conflict between the
camps
revolves around the question of a worthy end to the conflict: a
two-state
solution or one state for two peoples.

In Israeli political terms, representatives of the Zionist center and
left
faced off against radical leftist activists, who were horrified at the
prospect of having to talk to those they view as “representatives of
the
occupation.” Yael Lerer, founder of Andalus Publishing and an activist
in
the Balad party, who was invited to address the forum, told Haaretz
that she
views the people from Peace Now and the Labor Party as another arm of
the
occupation, and therefore unacceptable for dialog.

“It is a huge problem when the heads of the organization do reserve
duty in
the territories and belong to [Labor Party leader Ehud] Barak’s camp
and
then come to Europe and present themselves as belonging to the peace
camp.
This is not a camp that wants a just and genuine peace,” she said.

Delegates from the Zionist left said yesterday that they do not rule
out
talking with anyone on the other side.

The Palestinian side also divided into two groups: those who boycotted
the
Israeli presence at the forum and were busy throughout with internal
discussions; and those in the mainstream, who are willing to talk to
delegates from Zionist parties to advance the establishment of a
Palestinian
state.

In lieu of the forum schedule, the latter went on tours of Madrid along
with
their Israeli colleagues.

Israeli Arabs played a key role in the Palestinian camp, spearheading
opposition to the official Israeli and Spanish involvement. Amir
Mahoul,
general secretary of Ittijah, the umbrella organization of Arab civil
groups
in Israel, led the fight against turning the forum into an
establishment
affair. He called for an end to the influence of Israel and the Zionist

lobby in Europe and the world.

Abd Anabtawi, spokesman for the Israeli Arabs’ Higher Monitoring
Committee,
accused Israel’s Foreign Ministry of sabotaging the event. According to

Anabtawi, if the various United Nations resolutions do not constitute
the
basis for peace, there will be only one solution: establishing a
secular
democratic state in all of Palestine. He rejected the claim that making

peace requires negotiating with centrists in Israeli and Palestinian
societies.

Acknowledging that this forum lacked any force to impact the situation
in
the Middle East, Anabtawi blamed Israel for the lost chance to enlist
more
European support for the Palestinians. “Israel must not force its
position
on us and on civil society in Spain. The forum was liquidated, murdered
in
fact, by Israel,” he said.