- A draft peace agreement aimed at offering an alternative
route to peace in the Middle East has been angrily attacked by Israeli
ministers.
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- The unofficial plan - known as the Geneva Accord - was
finalised over the weekend during a meeting of Israeli opposition politicians
and Palestinian representatives in Jordan.
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- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the Jerusalem
Post it was "not helpful" to make people think there might be
something other than the international plan known as the roadmap.
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- His Justice Minister, Tommy Lapid, told the BBC World
Service's Hungarian section that the draft "gives peace a bad name
by relenting to all Palestinian demands and not taking into account basic
Israeli demands".
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- Full details of the plan, which comes after two years
of secret negotiations, are due to be released when the initiative is formally
adopted in Geneva next month.
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- Sources say there is a key trade-off at its heart - Palestinians
would not demand the right of return for refugees.
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- In exchange, they would get sovereignty over one of the
most disputed religious sites in the Middle East, Jerusalem's Temple Mount,
known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif.
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- The BBC's Barbara Plett in Jerusalem says a lot of the
points are sensitive issues that the roadmap pushes to one side, paying
more attention to ending the intifada, or Palestinian uprising, which started
three years ago.
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- Two of the architects of the plan, former Israeli Justice
Minister, Yossi Beilin, and former Palestinian minister Yasser Abed Rabbo,
have travelled to Egypt to try to raise international backing.
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- Mr Beilin, who met with senior Egyptian officials to
discuss the draft on Monday, said adopting the document could cause a "big
revolution" in the Middle East.
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- But Israeli politicians at home, particularly those from
the right, say the new proposals are not helpful.
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- Mr Sharon, who has long maintained there is no-one to
talk to on the Palestinian side, accused left-wing Israelis of trying to
bring down his coalition government.
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- Mr Lapid also lambasted the left-wing efforts, insisting
the roadmap was still alive.
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- "They want to divide the city of Jerusalem,"
he said.
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- "They want to remove the settlement of Ariel with
22,000 settlers. The list, which is unacceptable to the Israeli Government
and to the great majority of the Israeli population, is a piece of Palestinian
propaganda."
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- Free deal
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- The former Israeli Labour Prime Minister, Ehud Barak,
said the proposals enabled the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to argue
that the impasse in peace negotiations "stems not from terrorism but
from Ariel Sharon's uncompromising policies".
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- The Palestinians involved, including former ministers,
are reported to have the backing of Mr Arafat.
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- They, along with their Israeli counterparts, say the
accord is aimed at generating public interest and support.
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- Palestinian MP Fares Kadura told Israeli radio he wanted
to make the plan more than just an academic exercise.
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- "We are ready to campaign to win support for this
plan on the Palestinian street because we want a better life and we believe
we've found a way to achieve it," he said.
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- Author Amos Oz, who attended the meeting in Jordan, said
the right's reaction was "predictable and understandable".
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- "If we continue to prove that there is common ground
and that we can reach agreements on all issues, even the most disputed
ones, the right-wing hawks lose their raison d'etre," he told the
AFP news agency.
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- "This draft is now being offered gratis to the government."
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- Former Israeli negotiator David Kimche, who also took
part in the meeting, said: "We did this in light of the fact that
the government has not been trying to reach any meaningful negotiation
and that it has been accepted in the country that there are no partners
for peace."
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- © BBC MMIII
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3188308.stm
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