Once more, the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 is taking center stage. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas insisted during his speech before the recently-concluded Arab League Summit, in Jordan that the Initiative is the only solution on the table; asserting that it will not be changed or even tweaked.
But why is this Initiative, which was put forward by Saudi Arabia 15 years ago, now infused back into the already congested Middle East’s political discourse, despite the fact that Israel has rejected it repeatedly, and the US has shown little interest in enforcing it?
In March 2002, the Initiative, made of a few sentences, was proclaimed in an Arab League Summit in Beirut.
Less than half of Arab leaders participated in that conference. Head of the PA and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the late Yasser Arafat, was not allowed to attend. Israeli Prime Minister at the time, Ariel Sharon, had Arafat placed under house arrest in Ramallah. He told Arafat that, if Israel was to allow him to leave, he would not be allowed back. Arafat died two years later, amid allegations that he had been poisoned.
The Arab proposal was largely a reiteration of United Nations Resolutions 242 and 338. It promised complete normalization between Arab States and Israel should Israel withdraw from Palestinian and Arab land it occupied in 1967.
The Initiative seemed to adopt a lackluster attitude towards the Right of Return of Palestinian refugees, as it…