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E. Glaubach: Call for a Historic Settlement in the Holy Land
Written by Dr. Eliezer Glaubach, President, Jerusalem Peace and Security Forum
Sunday, April 13, 2014
We would like to express sincere and deep appreciation to US Secretary of State John Kerry, who, with the full support of the US President Barack Obama, has been working tirelessly to achieve a sustainable settlement between the parties by establishing two states living in peace side by side.
We support an approach that aims to achieve the goal through a framework agreement that is accepted on both sides and allows movement toward arrangements based on compromises on all the core issues, including the determination of the two capitals in Jerusalem, while leaving Jerusalem as an open city. In this framework agreement, the 1967 Green Line between the two countries would constitute the border and agreed territorial exchanges would be made in the Israeli settlement blocs.
It is recommended that the framework agreement would extend over five years, during which time a permanent status agreement would be drafted in a process of negotiations.
We call on the Israeli and Palestinian sides to seize this historic opportunity and make their way out of the ongoing maze which causes unnecessary and unbearable human suffering.
It is understood that both sides need to accept compromises on the core issues as well as other issues. They also need to adapt to the narratives of the other side in the spheres of nationality and religion in general and in the aspects of educational systems and public statements in particular.
From the Holy City of Jerusalem, we would like to wish the American, the Palestinian and the Israeli negotiating teams full success in achieving the holy objective of ceasing the bloody conflict and fulfilling the vision of a sustainable agreement in the Holy Land, a historic settlement between Israelis and Palestinians who wish to ensure the welfare of the two peoples, their long-term existence and the well-being of future generations.