One year after dovish Israelis and Palestinians presented a draft peace agreement called the Geneva Accord, prominent personalities from both camps launched a campaign designed to convince the people that there is a partner for peace on the other side.
Palestinian ministers and security men taped short statements that will be aired in 200 Israeli cinema halls, declaring their readiness for peace.
Israeli politicians and retired generals have made similar messages for Palestinians and those will be aired on Palestinian TV stations. The messages can also be seen on the internet.
The decision to launch the campaign follows public opinion surveys that showed a dent in Israeli and Palestinian attitudes toward an agreement.
A year ago the atmosphere was so negative "that the idea of sitting together to negotiate and find a solution was totally abandoned and the only available thing was confrontation, continuation of killing, bloodshed, building walls and all kinds of atrocities", former Palestinian minister of cabinet affairs Yasser Abed Rabbo on Tuesday told a joint press conference with the Israelis involved in the Geneva Accord.
Gadi Baltiansky, the Israeli director-general of the Geneva Accord (who had been then-prime minister Ehud Barak's spokesman) told the press conference that public opinion surveys indicate Israelis are more ready for an agreement than their leaders.
A poll his group commissioned showed that half the respondents support negotiating a final status agreement with the Palestinians while only 18 percent favor unilateral Israeli measures.
However, when the details of the Geneva Accord are presented to the interviewees - a withdrawal to the pre-1967 war lines, land swaps and allowing a limited number of Palestinian refugees to enter Israel - 41 percent said 'no', and 34 percent said 'yes'.
A major obstacle was the feeling there is no partner for peace on the Palestinian side, he continued. Forty-nine percent of the respondents said there is no partner, 29 percent said there is and the remainder did not know.
The campaign, he said, is therefore designed "to show there is a partner on the other side".
Elias Zananiri, his Palestinian counterpart, said that their survey conducted in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip showed 78.8 percent of the respondents support "a complete and mutual cessation of all acts of violence if negotiations between the two sides are resumed". A vast majority supports a cessation of violence against civilians on both sides.
On the refugee issue, 61 percent of the Palestinian public seeks compensation and a return to a Palestinian state - or to areas Israel would hand over under a land swap. They realize they would not return to the homes they had in what is now Israel, he concluded.
Nevertheless, among the Palestinians too, the number of people who oppose the Geneva Accord's proposed agreement exceeds those who support it. Zananiri said 33.7 percent of the respondents support the proposed clauses.
Israeli former justice minister Yossi Beilin, who played an important role in launching the Oslo accords and is now the key Israeli figure in the Geneva Accord, said the new emerging Palestinian leadership was "directly and indirectly involved" in the Geneva process.
At Monday's press conference Beilin said that the new Palestinian leadership was involved in the negotiations over the Geneva Accord. "I have grounds and hope they will accept it. This [document] will be the basis for negotiations over the final settlement," he predicted.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death, last month, has been conducive to a settlement. "It might be easier today than yesterday," he said. With Arafat gone, Sharon lost his excuse for not talking to the Palestinian leadership, he said.
In the attempt to persuade people they have a partner for peace, Palestinian minister for negotiating affairs Saeb Erakat appeared on a videotaped clip, saying: "The biggest lie there is is the notion of no
partner. We are your partners. We are a partner. We are the elected Palestinian leadership that is committed to peace, committed to the two-state solution," meaning a Palestinian independent state beside Israel.
Jibril Rajoub, who headed the Palestinian Preventive Security and was later Arafat's national security advisor said: "We recognize your right to live in security, peace, stability... within the 1967 boundaries, with no occupation, patronizing attitude over us, but that depends on your readiness to stop the occupation."
On the Israeli side, retired Maj. Gen. Amram Mitzna, who headed Labor's list in the last Knesset elections, said that it was in both sides' interest that the Palestinians have a state but "in the reality we find ourselves in today everybody loses.... The only alternative is to sit, negotiate... compromise. We'll give in a little, you give in a little and we'll reach a common denominator."
Israeli, Palestinian doves spread message
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