The Jerusalem Post, 1st November 2002

PLO Contemplates Abandoning Two-State Solution

Khaled Abu Toameh

The Palestine Liberation Organization may be forced to reconsider its support for the two-state solution, Diana Buttu, its legal adviser, said Thursday.

It was the first time since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 that a senior PLO representative has spoken openly about abandoning the idea of establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. In effect, her proposal means merging the Palestinians into the state and granting them citizenship.

Last month, Buttu surprised American and Israeli officials when she announced in Washington that Israel would eventually have to consider giving Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip citizenship. A spokesman for the State Department dismissed the idea, saying it threatened Israel's Jewish character.

In the 1980s, Sari Nusseibeh, currently the PLO's representative in Jerusalem, became the first official to demand Israeli citizenship for all Palestinians. The former Bir Zeit University professor was strongly attacked by the PLO and Palestinian hard-liners for his proposal.

"We have basically concluded that if the colonization continues at this pace, we are going to have to start questioning whether a two-state solution is even plausible," Buttu told the Israeli-Palestinian political analysis Web site Bitter Lemons.

Buttu is currently based in east Jerusalem, together with Michael Tarazi, a US citizen who is also serving as a legal adviser to the PLO. Since the beginning of the current conflict, the two have been serving as spokesmen for the PLO and the PA, appearing frequently on American and Western TV stations to explain the Palestinian position. "That is not to say that we are not committed to the two-state solution; the PLO has been committed to that since 1988," Buttu said. "But given the facts on the ground, given the way that things have changed, one cannot unscramble an egg.

"The leadership is going to have to start reassessing whether it really should be pushing for a two-state solution, or whether we should start pushing for equal citizenship and an anti-apartheid campaign along the same lines as South Africa."

Buttu's views deviate from the PLO's official policy over the past eight years. Whether her statements reflect a new trend in the organization remains to be seen.