- From: The Australian
- December 21, 2010
PALESTINIANS are hoping to mobilise their dead to their national cause by burying them in new cemeteries on West Bank territory.
The territory is an area coveted by Israeli settlers.
A grassroots organisation based in Hebron, the Popular Palestinian Committees, has launched the initiative in order to create facts on the ground that will influence the future border with Israel.
Calling their program Intifada (Uprising) of the Graves, the organisation has urged West Bank residents to open cemeteries outside their villages on land administered by the Israeli military.
Distributing Arab cemeteries throughout the West Bank, the group believes, will undermine any Israeli attempt to take permanent control of the area.
In addition to fresh burials, according to Israel Army Radio, the Palestinian organisation, an advocate of non-violent political activity, has also proposed reburials to these new cemeteries.
Several Palestinian Authority ministers have reportedly endorsed the group's initiative.
An Israeli settler leader, Danny Dayan, called the initiative "an alarming phenomenon" and urged the Israeli government to head it off.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, hosting a delegation of left-wing Israeli politicians and peace activists in Ramallah yesterday, asked them to relay to the Israeli public that he was serious about peace. The Palestinians, he said, have been transformed since the intifada, which broke out in 2000 and led to thousands of deaths.
"We changed the culture of terror and violence to a culture of peace and stability here in the West Bank in the last four years," he said. Palestinians, he said, would not again turn to violence.
Mr Abbas said he and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert had come closer to a political agreement than was generally known. In eight months of talks, he said, progress was made on numerous issues, although differences remained about the amount of land to be swapped between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Mr Olmert wanted 6.5 per cent of West Bank territory to be transferred to Israel to retain its major settlement blocs.
In return, Israel would cede a similar amount of territory to the Palestinians.
Mr Abbas said he was willing to swap only 1.9 per cent of the West Bank. The talks were suspended when Israel invaded the Gaza Strip two years ago.
"We don't want to miss this opportunity for peace," Mr Abbas told his Israeli visitors. "I have eight grandchildren. I want a peaceful life for them."
Speaking for the Israeli delegation, former Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna said most Israelis understood that the Palestinians must have their own state.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayad, who has been praised for building up the infrastructure of an independent state on the West Bank, said at the weekend that his plan for establishing a Palestinian state next year, announced two years ago, remained on course.
Palestinian dead join the land-claim cause | The Australian