Shaping the Peace to Come Trying to Help
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Trying to help, shaping the peace to come the scandinavian role in the middle east In spite of the diversity of national situations, there is undoubtedly a Scandinavian dimension in political culture, not only economic and environmental, but also in the field of foreign policy. This is particularly true insofar as the Middle East, and the Palestinian- Israeli conflict in particular, is concerned. Ilan Halevi is the Fatah representative in the Socialist International, a member of the plo, and a writer.1 4o with which those parties took their mem- bership in the Socialist International (si), made the latter a privileged instrument, or at least a positive echo-chamber, of Scandi- navian Middle East policies. Having per- sonally represented the plo and Fatah in the si for more than two decades, I have been a privileged witness to this process, the implications of which are still highly relevant to the present day impasses. Of course, this is a specific angle of vision and recollection, and may not constitute the whole picture: attempts to put an end to the conflict came from many quarters, includ- ing the us, but also the ussr, as well as Ceausescu’s Romania or Tito’s and post- Tito Yugoslavia. Recently, South Africa, for example, has also joined the group of states trying to contribute to the Middle East peace process. The matter here is to high- text: Ilan Halevi light the distinct Scandinavian role: not to claim it was the most decisive one, or the from a “narrow” Palestinian point of sole relevant one. view, “Nordic” involvement with the con- The most decisive factor in whatever flict is marked, as early as 1948, with the progress has been achieved throughout the assassination, by Zionist extremists, of un years in the direction of peace remains the Mediator Folke Bernadotte, because he double capacity of the Palestinian people to refused to endorse the Israeli occupation of resist occupation and national obliteration, Jerusalem and demanded the return of the and to aspire to a peaceful settlement on Palestinian refugees to their homes. There the basis of international legality. The most is a long list of Scandinavian un and inter- decisive factor in thwarting progress national functionaries who have, for many towards peace has been Israeli policy, while years, tried to help in a variety of domains, the most crucial international player, in the and fortunately most of them did not have Middle East as in the rest of the world, and to pay with their lives for their commit- maybe even more than in the rest of the ment to their own sense of justice. But they world, is the usa. But Scandinavian coun- invested considerable energy and talent in tries have played a distinct role in this con- all kinds of attempts to be helpful. flict for many years, and it is not by acci- Politically, the almost permanent hege- dent that the sole Israeli-Palestinian agree- mony of social-democratic parties over the ment ever achieved in a century of conflict majority of governments in at least three of bears the name of the Scandinavian capital the four countries,2 and the earnestness where it was negotiated and concluded, 43 even though it was formally signed on the Finnish Penti Vanaanen, and with the lawn of the White House. active support of the other Nordic social- In the history of the si, two historical fig- democratic parties, the Finns pushed for a ures and founding fathers stand as particu- formal participation of the plo in the Mid- larly dynamic on the Middle East conflict: dle East Committee, while Sten Anderson, Willy Brandt and Bruno Kreisky. And it is in his capacity as the Swedish Foreign Min- no accident that both were in exile in Swe- ister, took advantage of his official visit to den during Nazi rule in Germany and in Jordan to meet with two members of the Austria. They were both in many ways the plo Executive Committee residing in adopted children of the Swedish social- Amman: Mohammed Milhem, the former democrats, and they became sincere admir- mayor of Halhul expelled by the Israelis in ers of the Scandinavian model, before the early eighties, and general Abdel Razak becoming father figures for the generation Yehia, who would later conduct, in Roma- of Olof Palme, Gro Harlem Brundtland nia, one of the first public encounters and others. Given the exceptional role between plo officials and Israeli peace Bruno Kreisky played in connection with activists. This was in the spring of 1988, a the Middle East – being one of the organiz- few months after the beginning of the first ers of Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem in 1977, intifada. and opening doors for Yasser Arafat and This context and the impact of the Pales- the plo as early as 1974 – this connection is tinian upheaval on European perceptions highly significant, as is the fact that Olof of the conflict probably accounts for the Palme was one of the first heads of govern- acceleration of European initiatives in the ment to receive the Palestinian leader on a direction of a political solution which could state visit. only be found, according to the 1980 Venice Declaration, “with the participation Europe and the US of the plo on an equal footing with the In the Lisbon Council meeting of the si in other parties.” The plo already enjoyed an October 1993, a few weeks after the signing observer seat in the un system, but Israel of the so-called Oslo Accords, much praise and the us still refused to deal with it, and was addressed to Gro Harlem Brundtland the State Department, as early as 1975, for the role played in the Oslo process by under Henry Kissinger, had put conditions Norway in general and by its Foreign Min- – which it thought impossible to surmount ister Holst in particular, who had just – to such contacts: the plo should passed away. With her customary modesty, “renounce” terrorism, recognize Israel (the Brundtland recalled that “Norway inherited concept of Israel’s “right to exist”, devoid of that ‘file’ from our Swedish comrades. any legal reality, was not yet systematically When they lost the elections, Sten Ander- used) and accept un Security Council Res- son handed it over to Thorvald Stoltenberg, olution 242 (adopted in 1967 calling for the and Holst received it from him.”3 “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from At the beginning, there was indeed a territories occupied in the recent conflict” Scandinavian “peace conspiracy”. The sec- and the “[t]ermination of all claims or retary general of the si at the time was states of belligerency”) and 338 (adopted in 44 1973 calling on “[a]ll parties to present considered to be the “remote control” fighting to cease all firing and terminate all leader of the intifada, thus providing military activity immediately.”) Getting the Israel’s practical and official answer to plo to fulfill these conditions, in order to these openings. make it an acceptable interlocutor for the In September 1988, Yasser Arafat was American administration and forcing the invited to speak in the European parlia- Israeli government to cancel its veto on ment in Strasbourg. The initiative had orig- contacts with the plo, thus became the pri- inated with the German Social Democratic mary objectives of those Europeans who Party, and the invitation came formally were involved in efforts to create the condi- from the Socialist Group in the European tions for peace negotiations. On April 13th 1988, at the initiative of [ the Scandinavian parties in the si, the plo Terje Rød-Larsen, and through him was invited for the first time to speak in a Norway, indeed played a visibly meeting of the Socialist International Mid- important role, and essentially dle East Committee (simec) in Brussels. It took part, it should be noted, in the almost a helpful one. totally empty building of the European par- [ liament on a Friday afternoon. The Israeli Labour Party, a founding member of the Parliament. In Strasbourg, Yasser Arafat renewed si in 1951, boycotted the meeting, gave several hints as to what was about to but the Israeli Mapam party, the ancestor of emerge two months later in the Palestine left-wing Meretz-Yahad, was represented by National Council held in Algiers: the Dec- Arieh Shapir. He conducted a polite dia- laration of Independence of November 15th logue during the session of the Committee 1988, adopted unanimously, and the politi- and even participated in a joint press con- cal resolution, adopted by the first majority ference. vote in the history of the plo. Together they basically fulfilled the conditions laid by the Working towards peace US administration for an official dialogue The date of the Brussels simec meeting with the plo. was not fortuitous: Sten Anderson, who While the Europeans, and even the was on his way to Washington in order to Zionist left in Israel, including notorious meet with Secretary of State George Shultz “doves” in the Labour Party, acknowledged and report to him on his conversations the change in the Palestinian position, the with the Palestinian leadership in Amman, us administration still recoiled, claiming attended the meeting and had a lengthy the terms of the Algiers resolutions were conversation with the author of these lines. neither acceptable nor explicit enough. What looked like a promising develop- Here again, Sten Anderson intervened. He ment, however, did not interest the Israeli organized in Stockholm a meeting of the government at the time. A few hours later, plo delegation, led by poet Mahmoud Dar- an Israeli commando landed in the sub- wish, with a group of prominent peace-ori- urbs of Tunis and assassinated Abu Jihad, ented American Jews.