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Rev. Naim Ateek’s “A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation”

Distorts and Confuses the History of the Peace Process

The discussion of the peace process in Rev. Ateek’s latest book is unclear and misleading, especially with regard to events at the Camp David/Taba Peace Negotiations. On the one hand Rev. Ateek claims that it is a myth that the Palestinians rejected peace at Camp David/Taba in 2000/2001 (pp. 32-34). On the other hand, he offers no clear alternate narrative of what happened and apart from denying that Prime Minister Barak made a “generous offer” and insisting that it was the Palestinians that did so, Rev. Ateek provides no facts or details of the Camp David Summit.

What Happened at Camp David and Taba?

• On September 13, 1993, the Oslo Accords -- A Declaration of Principles based upon secret negotiations that had been occurring in Oslo -- was signed in Washington, D.C.. It outlined self-government for the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Signatories included Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and P.L.O. Chairman Yasser Arafat.

• According to the process established by the Oslo Accords, a final status agreement was to be reached by September 13, 2000. Therefore, in July 2000, President Bill Clinton convened a summit at Camp David with Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Ambassador Dennis Ross was President Clinton’s Special Envoy to the Middle East and served as his chief negotiator at Camp David (and later in Washington, D.C. and Taba).

• Early at Camp David, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians a state on about 87% of the West Bank and no land link to Gaza. Later at Camp David, President Clinton proposed Palestinian control over 91% of the West Bank in contiguous territory and an Israeli security presence along 15% of the border with Jordan. (Unofficial maps of these proposals can be found in Dennis Ross’ “A Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle-East Peace (Farrar, Straus and Giroux June 2005)).

• Arafat said no to both offers at Camp David, made no counteroffers, and walked out of the Summit. The Second Initifada began soon afterward on September 29th.

• Although he was angry at Chairman Arafat, President Clinton remained convinced he could bring him to accept peace and a two-state solution. Five months later (December 2000) in Washington, D.C., President Clinton presented a final proposal to both the Palestinians and the Israelis known as the “Clinton Parameters.” It was proposed as a take it or leave it deal -- negotiations could take place within the parameters, but not on the parameters themselves. President Clinton wanted an answer from both parties within five days.

• Under the Clinton Parameters the Palestinians would get all of Gaza and 97 percent of contiguous West Bank territory, a capital in East Jerusalem, three out of four quarters in the Old City in Jerusalem and a $30 Billion fund to compensate refugees. It was a clear and generous offer to the Palestinians. It is also a matter of historical record, memorialized by Bill Clinton himself in his memoir My Life and also by Ambassador Dennis Ross in A Missing Peace.

• In President Clinton’s words, “I knew the plan was tough for both parties, but it was time-past time-to put up or shut up.” Here is his account of what happened next: “Arafat immediately began to equivocate, asking for ‘clarifications.’ But the parameters were clear; either he would negotiate within them or not. As always, he was playing for more time. I called [Egyptian President] Mubarak and read him the points. He said they were historic and he could encourage Arafat to accept them. On the twenty-seventh [of December], Barak’s cabinet endorsed the parameters with reservations, but all their reservations were within the parameters, and therefore subject to negotiations anyway. It was historic: an Israeli government had said that to get peace, there would be a Palestinian state in roughly 97 percent of the West Bank, counting the swap, and all of Gaza, where Israel also had settlements. The ball was in Arafat’s court.” (Bill Clinton, My Life, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004, pp. 914-15).

• In January, during the first week of the Bush presidency, negotiators from both sides went to Taba, Egypt. But ultimately, the Palestinians rejected the Clinton Parameters and the Second Intifada continued, with suicide bombers blowing themselves and innocent Israelis up.

On what basis then, does Rev. Ateek state that:

• “If Israel were willing to curtail its greed for Arab and Palestinian land and its lust for domination , Israel could have been living in peace with all its Arab neighbors.” (p. 31)

• “Prime Minister Barak never made a ‘generous’ offer.’” (p. 34)

• “Palestinians, on the other hand, did make a generous offer in their willingness to yield land to Israel for the sake of a genuine peace in which the two states of Israel and Palestine could live next to eachother without fear” (p. 34)

Rev. Naim Ateek is entitled to his own opinion about Camp David/Taba.

But he is not entitled to make up his own facts and deceive his readers by distorting history.