In its latest trick, Israel is using the idea of a Palestinian state to ethnically cleanse itself and to keep its illegal settlements, marvels Saleh Al-Naami The Israeli vice premier and minister of strategic threats (officially strategic affairs) Avigdor Lieberman doesn't let any opportunity pass without mentioning that the positions of the extreme right Israel Beituna Party that he heads have come to form a central "national" consensus in Israel. Lieberman does not conceal his relief that more parties and political movements in Israel have begun to adopt his party's position calling for the implementation of a land swap between Israel and a Palestinian state. In such a swap, the Palestinian leadership is supposed to agree to Israel annexing the major settlement conglomerations in the West Bank in return for annexing to a Palestinian state some of the residential areas in Israel in which the Palestinians live. Lieberman has stressed that through this proposal Israel would achieve two strategic goals -- ridding itself of the Palestinian demographic burden within Israel, and at the same time wrenching agreement from the Palestinian leadership to annex settlement conglomerations in the West Bank to Israel. As Lieberman has clarified, the proposal is not a peace plan but rather a security plan, for he is concerned with the establishment of a Palestinian state on the condition that it contribute to solving Israel's demographic "problem". He fears Israel turning into a "bi-national" state if the natural growth of Palestinians within Israel continues as its current high rate. More parties and political forces, both on the right and left, have become enthused over this idea of swapping land. Ephraim Sneh, a leader in the Labour Party and former Israeli deputy defence minister, holds that swapping land is the best solution to guaranteeing that "Israel remains a Jewish and democratic state". Even Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni has noted on more than one occasion that she is enthusiastic about the idea. The idea of swapping land was first introduced during the Camp David II meeting in late 1999, when former US President Bill Clinton suggested that the Jewish settlement conglomerations remain under Israeli sovereignty while part of the resident-free Israeli area Halwasa be annexed to the Gaza Strip. This proposal was rejected by late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat. On the eve of the Annapolis conference, talk of land swapping increased, becoming a primary component of all the proposals put forth by Israeli officials. Yet no one in Israel is now proposing that Palestinians receive the Halwasa area; they are only offering some of the areas within Israel in which Palestinians reside to be exchanged for settlement conglomerations. The idea is fervently supported among researchers and the military elite in Tel Aviv. Gideon Begher, a professor of geography at Tel Aviv University, says that the idea of swapping land is alone capable of guaranteeing a Jewish majority while at the same time increasing the area of Jewish settlement. Begher says that swapping land between Israel and the Palestinian state would mean that Israel would rid itself of 200,000 Palestinians living within it. Yet a close look at the map of the regions Israel is prepared to concede to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in exchange for settlement conglomerations shows that they include the city of Um Al-Faham and a group of towns and villages around it. This city is considered the stronghold of the Islamist movement in Israel under the leadership of Sheikh Raed Salah. The Israeli security agencies have concurred that this movement forms a "strategic threat" to Israel because it is an overtly religious movement and the one most extreme in its rejection of the "Jewish state". It calls for the boycott of Israel's "political institutions", defence of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and support of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in their struggle against the occupation. From another perspective, the idea of swapping land is completely in keeping with Israel's demand that the PA acknowledge it as a Jewish state. As the Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has said, this acknowledgement would mean that the PA agreed that settlement of the conflict must ensure a continued Jewish majority in Israel, and would oblige the PA to give up implementation of the right of return for Palestinian refugees to the areas they migrated from. It would also necessarily decrease the Palestinian presence within Israel. Yet beyond the enthusiasm of officials and the elite in Israel for the idea of a land swap, what is the position of the PA? The Palestinian stance on this issue is hazy and sometimes contradictory. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and head of the Palestinian negotiations delegation Ahmed Qurei have announced that they reject the idea of swapping land. Yet the Israeli officials who have communicated with PA representatives affirm that the PA has indicated preliminary agreement to the idea. On 22 November, Israeli television Channel 2 revealed that in the discussions held between the Palestinian and Israeli delegations on the eve of travelling to the Annapolis conference, it had been agreed that the idea of a land swap between the two parties should be a part of the permanent solution to the conflict. The station added that the understanding between the two sides regarding a Palestinian state included a paragraph stating the "establishment of an unarmed Palestinian state whose borders are those determined by 1967 maps, with agreement on the borders' details based on security needs, demographic developments, and humanitarian requirements, which will open the door to a swapping of land at a 1:1 ratio, with preservation of the settlement blocs within Israel". But what about the opinion of the Palestinians within Israel, who will be the primary victims of this idea of a land swap? Israeli Knesset member Jamal Zehalqa holds that the insistence of Israeli officials in proposing this idea aims to weaken the Palestinian minority within Israel and do away with its political role, marginalising its effect on decision-making circles in Tel Aviv. "We absolutely cannot accept this deal," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Can we accept exchanging Jerusalem for Um Al-Faham?" Zehalqa added that if they were insistent on the idea, then its basis should be a return to the 1947 borders, which would mean that Israel would withdraw from expansive areas in the Galilee and Triangle regions, which would be annexed to a Palestinian state. Wadi Al-Awaadeh, editor-in-chief of the website arabs48.com that covers developments among the Palestinian minority within Israel, says that he rejects the principle of equating himself as a Palestinian citizen living within Israel with settlers. "We are the landowners; we were born and raised on our land," he told the Weekly. "Merely proposing this idea is an indication of Israel's racism, for it is prepared to divest citizenship from us as Arabs merely to grant legitimacy to the annexations of angry settlers." Al-Awaadeh pointed out an extremely important point, that Israel only proposes transferring land that Palestinian citizens live on, without transferring the agricultural land they own or other land the occupation authorities previously confiscated. "What about the social connections between people here?" he asked. "When they want to annex Um Al-Faham city to a Palestinian state, how can communications continue between the residents of this city and their relatives in other cities and residential areas that remain within Israel?" Abdul-Hakm Mufid, a Palestinian academic who lives in Um Al-Faham, says that with regard to the principle he has no objection to living under the rule of a Palestinian state or any other Arab rule, but that he notes that the Israelis wanted to get rid of the demographic "burden" that the Palestinian minority creates. "Since the Zionist movement began to implement its settlement endeavour, it has stuck to the rule that control must be taken of the largest area of land with the smallest number of Arabs," he told the Weekly. "This rule has driven the Israeli leadership to propose the idea of swapping land." There is no dispute between Mufid, Al-Awaadeh, and Zehalqa that the PA is responsible to a large degree for Israel daring to propose this idea they describe as "racist". "Despite the reassurances of Abu Mazen that the idea will be rejected, I hear other voices within the PA supporting the idea," said Zehalqa. Al-Awaadeh and Mufid hold that the PA is considered the "full partner" of Israel in its attempts to deny the Palestinians their rights. Shalom Dichter, general director of the Sikway organisation, one concerned with dialogue between Jews and Palestinians within Israel, holds that the idea of swapping land and including it within the settlement to the conflict between the Palestinian people and Israel will destroy relations between Israel and the Palestinian minority living within it. "This will lead to transforming the dream of political peace into a civil nightmare," he says. "The insistence of Israeli officials in proposing such ideas to get rid of Palestinian citizens because of their ethnic affiliation casts doubt on the extent to which officials and the drafters of political plans in Israel understand the essence of the concept of citizenship as the basic humanitarian building block of a state," he continues. In sum, Israel wants to employ a potential Palestinian state to implement a "demographic and geographic transfer" through which it could rid itself of the greatest number possible of the Palestinians and their descendants who remained on territory claimed by Israel in 1948.
