Gershon Baskin, Co-CEO of the Israel-Palestine Centre For Research and Information [IPCRI]said that that he was the one who "put forth" the idea to European Union Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana of having the United Nations Security Council recognize a Palestinian state, even if an agreement is not reached between Israel and the Palestinians. 

 

Baskin told an IPCRI conference entitled "Education for Peace" on August 8 in Beit Jalla, at Talitha Kumi near Bethlehem that "He [Solana] heard it first from me, but it's fine, let Solana get the credit." 

 

Baskin said under the proposed plan the United States would not use its veto power to prevent the U.N. Security Council from recognizing the existence of the State of Palestine within provisional borders. 

 

Baskin told the conference that about two weeks ago he met for "secret talks in the U.S." with five Palestinians, five Americans and five Israelis. 

 

"[PA President] can submit a request [to the U.N. Security Council]that the State of Palestine become a member state of the U.N., and if the U.S. does not veto this, all of the Security Council members will vote in favour," said Baskin, noting that currently the Palestinians only have observer status at the U.N. 

 

After passing the Security Council, the State of Palestine would be recognized by the U.N. general Assembly and "from that moment, the State of Israel is now occupying the entire member state of Palestine," he said. He added that once that happened the U.N. could create a mechanism to send in international forces to implement the two state solution, with Jerusalem as a capital for both states. 

 

In addition to putting forth this idea to Solana, Baskin told the conference that he has presented his plan to the Americans. When asked specifically to whom this was sent, Baskin replied that his plan was presented to two Deputy Secretaries of State to Hillary Clinton, and was also sent to the office of Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell. 

 

Baskin also said that last week he met Rafik Husseini and presented the plan to him in preparation for it to be presented to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, noting that when the Fatah convention in Bethlehem was over, he expected the plan to be presented to Abbas. 

 

On June 13, Ha'aretz reported that Soalana said in London that "After a fixed deadline, a U.N. Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the two state solution."' 

 

It further reported that Solana said "It [the U.N.] would accept the Palestinian state as a full member of the U.N. and set a calendar fro implementation." 

 

Baskin told the conference that Solana's comments on this plan were to have been co-ordinated first with Mitchell, but that Solana made his comments without first notifying Mitchell. Baskin suggested that Solana's comments were intended as "a trial balloon." 

 

Baskin's plan was presented at the conference through the use of a power point presentation which can be viewed at: http://www.ipcri.org/files/ending.pdf 

 

In an abstract of his talk, Baskin noted that in his view "there will not be any successful bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at any time in the near future." 

 

In his view, the only possible plan is one whereby the international community imposes a Palestinian state on Israel. 

 

Baskin also said that he spoke in Brussels [in the Parliament-I think but am not certain] and proposed that both Palestine and Israel ought to be granted EU status, which would give both sides a large incentive to approve of the two state solution 'It wouldn't be a big deal if a Palestinian worked in Tel-Aviv, when he could also work in Vienna." But Baskin added that the Europeans he'd spoken with weren't interested " in having either of us join." 

 

Baskin noted that once the U.S. and U.N. take steps to recognize a Palestinian state, the peace camp in Israel will be able to rally around it and be revived. 

 

He also proposed that once this happens, the PA ought to declare new elections (after a Palestinian state became a member of the U.N.) 

 

He proposed that a condition for running in these elections would be recognition of the Palestinian state, but by recognizing the Palestinian state, Hamas would be recognizing the state of Israel. Hamas could only run in these elections if it recognized the Palestinian state and therefore the State of Israel. 

 

Baskin also said that in the November 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence, declared at the PLO summit in Algiers, a reference was made to the U.N. resolution 242 and that therefore Israel was recognized by the PLO. 

 

[Gordon Barthos, the correspondent for the Toronto Star, who covered that conference in Algiers, reported that there was no such PLO recognition of Israel at the Algiers conference] 

 

The IPCRI session was attended by Israelis and Palestinians.

 

The article was alos picked up by:

 

IsraePundit

 

 

Doc's talk

 

 

Middle East Papers Blogspot

 

 

Resist Net. Com

 

 

 

A shorter version of the article was first  published in the  Canadian Jewish News:

 

Think-tank wants UN to declare Palestinian state 

 

By RHONDA SPIVAK, Special to cjnews.com    

 

Wednesday, 02 September 2009 

 

JERUSALEM — Gershon Baskin, an Israeli peace advocate and CEO of the Israel-Palestine Centre For Research and Information (IPCRI) – a joint Israeli-Palestinian think-tank in Jerusalem – believes the only way to achieve Mideast peace is by having the international community impose a Palestinian state on Israel. 

 

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In fact, Baskin declared last month that he was the one who gave the idea to European Union Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana, who said earlier this year that United Nations Security Council should recognize a Palestinian state even if there is no deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

 

"[Solana] heard it first from me, but it's fine, let Solana get the credit," Baskin said Aug. 8 in Beit Jalla, near Bethlehem, at an IPCRI conference titled "Education for Peace." 

 

Baskin said that under his proposed plan, the United States wouldn't use its United Nations veto power to prevent the UN Security Council from recognizing a Palestinian state within provisional borders.

 

He told the conference –  attended by Israelis and Palestinians – that two weeks before the conference, he met for "secret talks in the U.S." with five Palestinians, five Americans and five Israelis about his plan.

 

According to Baskin's proposal, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would submit a request to the Security Council asking for a state of Palestine to be granted full membership in the UN. 

 

Without a U.S. veto, the request would likely receive the necessary nine or 15 votes within the council that it would need in order to pass.

 

At that point, "the state of Palestine will become a full member state obligate by the UN Charter," Baskin said.

 

"At that moment, the Israeli occupation of one member state of another will require a new Security Council resolution that will supersede [Security Council resolution] resolution 242 and all other resolutions on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict."

 

The proposal also says that the "main elements of the new… resolution would be the re-confirmation under international law of the 'two states for two peoples' solution."

 

Baskin added that once this occurred, the UN could deploy international forces to implement a two-state solution, with Jerusalem as a capital for both states. 

 

Baskin's proposal states: "The implementation process would have to include several elements – the resolution would state the principal that the international community is prepared to use… the [UN] Charter and to deploy international forces (military, police, and civilian) to supervise the Israeli withdrawal from Palestine."

 

In addition to putting forth this proposal to Solana, Baskin told the conference that he has presented his plan to the Americans. 

 

When asked specifically whom the plan was sent to, Baskin said it was presented to two deputy secretaries of state and the office of the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell.

 

He said that in the first week of August, he also met Rafik Husseini, Abbas' chief of staff, and gave him the plan to present to the PA president, adding that he expected it to have been given to Abbas after Fatah's recent convention in Bethlehem.

 

A June 13 article in Ha'aretz reported that while in London, Solana said that "after a fixed deadline, a UN Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the two-state solution."

 

Solana also reportedly said that the UN "would accept the Palestinian state as a full member of the UN and set a calendar for implementation."

 

Baskin told the conference that Solana made his comments without first notifying Mitchell, suggesting that they were intended as "a trial balloon."

 

Baskin's plan can be viewed on IPCRI's website at www.ipcri.org/files/ending.pdf. 

 

In an abstract of his talk, Baskin said that, in his view, "there will not be any successful bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at any time in the near future."

 

He argued that once the United States and the UN take steps to  recognize a Palestinian state, the peace camp in Israel will be able to rally around it and be revived. 

 

Asked whether the Canadian government funds IPCRI, Rodney Moore, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Trade in Ottawa responded by e-mail that the "the government of Canada supports IPCRI discussions through funding with the Network for Peace Fund of the Canadian International Development Agency. This is the one current project that Canada is supporting with the IPCRI. The government… is not affiliated with the selection of discussion topics, but supports the overall objective of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, including through IPCRI."

 

Contacted for further comment, a PMO spokesperson gave the same response.

 

In an interview with The CJN, Israel's deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon called Baskin's proposal "nonsense" adding that "the United States will not impose a solution on Israel, let alone the United Nations."

 

Benny Begin, a Likud MK and minister without portfolio in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, called Baskin's plan "strange and queer."

 

"If Canada is funding Baskin, I imagine that they don't realize what he has been proposing [or doing]. I can hardly imagine that the Canadian government, a country that is friendly to Israel, would be supporting this, if they knew."

 

With files from Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf