Israel promised East Jerusalem construction freeze only in Ramat Shlomo

Today, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) General Secretary made a public complaint from Ramallah that was also sent directly to Washington about what he called the “first violation … of the terms to start indirect negotiations”.

Haaretz reported that “Yasser Abed Rabbo said the construction of 14 housing units for Jewish settlers in an East Jerusalem neighbourhood, as reported by the Israeli Peace Now pressure group, violated the terms of new talks. ‘This is the first violation and first breach of the terms to start the indirect negotiations’, said Abed Rabbo, the secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, which on Saturday voted in favor of indirect negotiations under U.S. mediation. ‘We will act immediately to stop this, because we will not agree that negotiations will be used as a cover for settlement activities’, he said. He added: ‘The PA is following this situation on the ground with the U.S.A’.”

But, what State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a statement on Sunday is that “Israel had pledged not to build in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of East Jerusalem for two years…”

Ramat Shlomo, only.

Still, Ma’an News Agency reported that Abbas told the official Palestinian Authority News Agency, WAFA, that “The US administration must answer us about such issues”. (See here.)

But, the Haaretz report added, “A senior Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that 14 homes in the Ras el-Amud neighbourhood of East Jerusalem were being built privately and that the government had no authority in the matter”.

Today’s report in Haaretz also note that “Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser on Monday acknowledged it would take a couple of years before construction begins on the Ramat Shlomo project – but added that projects will be built in other East Jerusalem neighborhoods where construction bids already have been issued”. Today’s Haaretz story is posted here.

At a press conference with journalists at Mishkenot Shaananim in Jerusalem today, Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intelligence Dan Meridor said “when U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was here, the Israeli Prime Minster checked and said that there was no building in Ramat Shlomo — that’s a statement of fact. We did not say that we would have a discriminatory policy in Jerusalem where Arabs can build but Jews cannot, or the other way around.”

Jerusalem, Meridor argued, “has never been in all its history the capital of any Arab state — even under Jordan, when it was a border city. While it has been the capital of Israel and the Jewish people, and the center of our dreams and hopes. We need to find arrangements … but to cut the Old City in pieces — even if Olmert’s offer was bit accepted by the Palestinians, I don’t accept it — but the Palestinians didn’t accept it from Olmert, and Arafat did not accept it from Clinton”…

Meridor complained that he saw a problem of leadership within the Palestinians: “We are resuming negotiations that have been stopped over a year ago, with the offer of [former Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert, that was not accepted or rejected. Abu Mazen promised to come the next morning, but he has not been seen since”.

Meridor said that creating a state “requires leadership, and resolution”. When Olmert’s offer was placed on the table during the Annapolis process in late 2008, it was the time for a decision, Meridor noted, “but they did not take it”.

He said he still does not see Palestinian readiness to take tough decisions: “Now they say, ‘let the UN decide, let American decide, let the European Union decide — [but] it won’t get them anywhere”.

Meridor also said, straight out: “We don’t accept the ’67 lines, so we need to negotiate”.

Nevertheless, Meridor said . “in fact, over the past year there’s almost none, almost no terror — which is would be normal in other parts of the world, but which is not normal here. So, this is a success story”. He attributed this to three factors: “IDF action, the Security Services [intelligence units] of Israel, and the Palestinian Security Services [policemen], and cooperation between all three”. But, Meridor added, “I’m quite fearful it will collapse if negotiations collapse”.

Asked about the new Palestinian Authority campaign of partial boycott of settlement goods, Meridor replied: “I find it difficult to justify, though people can buy whatever they like. But it is quite strange for us to ask for help economically, and then boycott us … Palestinians have not yet accepted that there is a right for the Jewish state to exist, so maybe we should boycott them … [And] the idea of boycotting one another because you don’t agree on borders — is it a boycott, or is it pressure?”

Meridor also noted that “for decades we heard that the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people is the PLO — but Hamas disagrees, so the PLO is boycotting them”…

He said that the Palestinian leadership is facing a choice: “are they for partnership or struggle?”

The Palestinian reaction to today’s invitation to Israel to join the Paris-based OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development) was “not good”, Meridor noted drily. “We are doing our best to make their economy prosper, while they are trying to make tens of thousands of Palestinians stop working in the settlements. It is up to them”.

Meridor attributed the invitation to Israel’s own economic success, illustrated by its current GDP of $30,000 U.S. dollars per capita (despite poverty in significant parts of Israeli society, including many children). Meridor said that this was the result of “25 years of a systemic policy with three elements: (1) We did take the advice that America gave (though it did not follow it, itself) to balance the budget…and cut debt, (2) We did open up our economy … and there is no more protection, and (3) the massive aliya (immigration to Israel) from the former Soviet Union”.

Despite reports of recent rapid Palestinian economic growth — at least in the West Bank — there is a huge differential between the Israeli and Palestinian economies, with Palestinian incomes still not even 10 percent of the average Israeli wage.

The U.S. strongly supported Israel’s accession to the OECD. The timing of the invitation — just after Israel made a concession on Ramat Shlomo to help launch new “indirect talks” under American auspices — was probably not accidental.

Nevertheless, the Associated Press reported that “Palestinian officials had urged the OECD to reject Israel’s application. They said that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, and discriminatory treatment of its own Arab citizens, put the country at odds with the OECD’s commitment to human rights. Mohammed Shtayyah, head of the semiofficial Palestinian development agency PECDAR, called Monday’s decision ‘unfortunate’, and said the OECD had prematurely rewarded Israel. ‘I think it is a misjudgment on behalf of the organization. I think this will encourage Israel not to go along with the peace process’, he said”. This was reported here.

Haaretz added that “[Israeli] Foreign Ministry officials earlier said that Palestinians had intensified their efforts to keep Israel out of the organization in recent days, saying that Israel infringes on Palestinians’ human rights and violates OECD values. Israel says Palestinian Prime Minister Salem Fayyad called many of the leaders of OECD countries over the past day to argue against Israel’s acceptance. One of the Palestinian arguments is that Israel provided false financial data by not separating out the data related to the settlements”. The Haaretz article noted that “Three OECD members – Switzerland, Ireland and Norway – had previously expressed reservations about Israel’s membership. They have focused on the settlements, which Israel does not treat as a separate economic entity”. But, in the end, the invitation was issued with the unanimous consent of all 31 OECD members. This Haaretz report can be read in full here.

An OECD document states that: “The question of the geographical scope of statistical data provided by Israel, which include data on the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank, was the subject of lengthy discussions within the OECD.  A footnote will be included in all OECD documents containing statistical data on Israel stating that the data are supplied by and under the responsibility of the Israeli authorities and that their use by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law.  Moreover, upon a request from OECD Members, Israel has committed to providing disaggregated data for the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank in the case of specific statistics such as population, labour force characteristics, household income distribution and poverty. Finally, Israel has taken the unprecedented step of agreeing to actively co-operate in a post-accession study, to be carried out within one year after Israel’s accession, to quantify the impact of including these areas in key economic and social aggregates. This will be the first study of its kind”.  This OECD document is posted here.

The OECD invitation was formally announced as Meridor was speaking.   He told the journalists that this “will signal to the world and to the international financial actors that Israel is a very strong economy”.

It will take Russia another year to qualify for an invitation, the OECD reported today.

Israel completed the accession process in three years — signing an anti-bribery convention; reexamining environmental priorities — including launching initiatives in waste management and air pollution controls. and pledging to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020; and fulfilling requirements set by 18 different OECD committees. The OECD said that it had also “learned from Israel’s experience in certain areas, such as in the policy areas of innovation and scientific and technological policy. Total civilian R&D expenditures were 4.7 % of GDP in 2007, giving Israel the highest R&D intensity in the world. It accounts for the third highest number of scientific articles per million population and has an impressive patenting performance in science and technology. Performance in certain high technology sectors, notably biotechnology, is also particularly strong”. This OECD document is posted here.

In a special press conference a few hours later, Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu called it a “seal of approval” which open doors, boost the country’s credit rating, provide access, and attract many financial investors. The Haaretz report quoted Netanyahu as saying: “Our goal is to climb to the 15 leading economies in the world for their gross national product”, but also as noting that “There is still too much centralization in the private business sector … we intend to act adamantly to diminish this centralization.”

According to the Haaretz report here., Netanyahu added that “Israel was in the worst place in the world regarding bureaucracy, and said that ‘we are in a category of our own when it comes to bureaucratic complications’.”