Palestinian Leader Maps Plan for Separate State

Image via Wikipedia

By ISABEL KERSHNER

JERUSALEM — The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, unveiled a government program on Tuesday to build the apparatus of a Palestinian state within two years, regardless of progress in the stalled peace negotiations with Israel.

The plan, the first of its kind from the Palestinian Authority, sets out national goals and priorities and operational instructions for ministries and official bodies. Mr. Fayyad said it was meant to hasten the end of the Israeli occupation and pave the way to independent statehood, which he said “can and must happen within the next two years.”

There was no immediate official Israeli comment, with the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Europe. But two Israeli officials reacted with consternation over what they saw as a unilateral action. The United States consul general in Jerusalem expressed approval for the plan.

Mr. Fayyad, an American-educated economist and a political independent who has gained the confidence of the West and is largely respected in Israel, made the announcement in the West Bank city of Ramallah. He said the goal of the plan was “to establish a de facto state apparatus within the next two years.”

His plan was not meant to be “in lieu of the political process, but to reinforce it,” Mr. Fayyad said in an interview with The New York Times. Negotiations and state-building, he said, need to be pursued in parallel.

The Western-backed Palestinian leadership has recently been accused of passivity in its approach to peacemaking and pursuit of independence. Mr. Fayyad said the new program represented a proactive effort to form the foundation of the state. His announcement came on a day when Mr. Netanyahu met with Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London. On Wednesday, he is to meet there with George J. Mitchell, the Obama administration’s Middle East envoy.

Jacob Walles, the American consul general, spoke of the plan in an interview here on Monday, before Mr. Fayyad’s announcement. He said that it was the first time he had seen such a “concrete plan” and that the Palestinians were working in a practical way toward their goal.

Mr. Walles added that under the premiership of Mr. Fayyad there had been “a lot of progress in the West Bank” in economic, security and other spheres.

Yuval Steinitz, the finance minister of the conservative Likud Party, called Mr. Fayyad’s ideas “disappointing.”

“This is contrary to all the agreements signed between the sides,” Mr. Steinitz told Israel Radio. “There is no place for unilateralism, no place for threats, and of course, there will be no Palestinian state at all, if any, without ensuring the state of Israel’s security.”

Daniel Ayalon, the deputy foreign minister of the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu Party, said that “artificial dates and arbitrary deadlines never worked in the past, but caused only damage and would not work now.”

Mr. Fayyad’s plan lays out a broad outline for a democratic Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The plan states, for example, that “shelter, education and health insurance are basic rights which will be preserved and protected by the state,” which also has “an enduring obligation to care and provide for the martyrs, prisoners, orphans and all those harmed in the Palestinian struggle for independence.”

Aspirations for the economy include ridding it of outside hegemony and reversing its dependence on Israel. Goals for the Finance Ministry include reducing reliance on international aid by controlling spending and increasing domestic revenues. The government is to offer tax incentives to local and foreign investors.

The Palestinian Authority has instructed its Ministry of Transport to help develop legislation and plans for modern seaports, crossing points and airports, including an international airport in the Jordan Valley.

Mr. Fayyad acknowledges that the Palestinian national cause has been hampered by internal schism, which limits the authority of President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and the Fayyad government to the West Bank and leaves Hamas, its Islamic rival, in control of Gaza.

The program could be adopted by any Palestinian government over the next two years, Mr. Fayyad said. “It is a rallying call for our people to unite behind our vision,” he said