Bryan -
What do you think of this new "Israeli-Palestinian Coalition"? A hopeful sign or a fruitless return to Oslo-type thinking? Is the DFLP really joining a coalition that calls for a "return to negotiations"? Why not a call for an end to occupation?
Seth
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Published on Saturday, December 29, 2001 in Washington Post
Mideast Peace Activists Join Forces
by Hanna Rosin
JERUSALEM, Dec. 28 -- More than 700 Israelis and Palestinians packed into a Jerusalem hotel today in a rare display of support for peace, creating a new coalition seeking an end to violence and a return to negotiations.
The coalition is made up of familiar faces from the Israeli peace movement, including members of the opposition Labor Party and the left-wing Meretz party. The Palestinians brought an unexpectedly broad range of representatives, including leaders who have opposed negotiations with Israel.
After 15 months of renewed violence, Israelis say in public opinion polls that they strongly back the hard-line approach of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The peace movement, meanwhile, has lost much of its public support as the 1993 Oslo accords have come to be seen as a failure. Today's rally was small compared with those of earlier years, but in the current atmosphere of violence and retribution it offered an unusual tableau of Palestinians and Israelis shaking hands, hugging and sharing a stage to promote a common cause.
The rally marked the creation of the Israeli-Palestinian Coalition, which announced a declaration of principles calling for "a cessation of violence," "the return to negotiation" and "the adoption of a two-state solution," referring to Israel and a Palestinian state.
The unofficial leader on the Palestinian side of the coalition is Sari Nusseibeh, the Palestine Liberation Organization's commissioner for Jerusalem affairs and the new president of Al-Quds University. Nusseibeh is a leading moderate.
Nusseibeh expressed surprise at some of the more militant Palestinians who showed up. The most dramatic moment of the evening came when a group of Bedouin leaders from Jachalin, who have had many land disputes with the Israeli government, filed onto the stage, lending their support to the coalition. Also surprising, Nusseibeh said, was the presence of two members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a militant group that denounced Nusseibeh only a month ago.
"We talked to them, but I am shocked they actually came," Nusseibeh said. "This shows it's not just me talking."
Also today, two members of the militant Islamic Jihad group attacked an Israeli army patrol in the Gaza Strip in a failed suicide mission. Troops killed one assailant and found remnants of an explosives belt near his body.
Meanwhile, Israel lifted a blockade of Bethlehem, the second West Bank town where travel restrictions were eased this week in response to a recent decrease in violence. Palestinian attacks on Israelis have decreased since Dec. 16, when Yasser Arafat called for an end to such attacks.
Special correspondent Eetta Prince-Gibson contributed to this report.
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