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A Palestinian architect of an unofficial Middle East peace plan known as the Geneva Initiative said it was aimed at blocking Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "apartheid" policies and denied that it waived Palestinan refugees' right of return. The document unveiled in Geneva in early December "proved that it is possible to have a Palestinian-Israeli partnership and that there is an alternative to the Sharon plan of racial segregation," former information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told reporters here. Abed Rabbo and former Israeli justice minister Yossi Beilin led negotiations to draft the initiative, which envisages a Palestinian state encompassing virtually all of the West Bank and shared sovereignty over Jerusalem. The effort was "a form of political resistance to Sharon's plans" to build a "racial segregation wall" on the West Bank and gave a boost to the Israeli peace camp, Abed Rabbo said. "Instead of being scattered and in a defensive position, peace forces in Israel have started to come together and go on the offensive," he said. The proposal, which was rejected by Sharon's government, was not designed for immediate implementation, but was meant to create the conditions for an eventual settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which would have to include the main elements of the Geneva document, he said. "These are an independent sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital, and a one-for-one land swap that would not exceed 2.3 percent of the land," Abed Rabbo said. Abed Rabbo said it was not true that the plan dropped the right of return for some 3.8 million Palestinian refugees, as Palestinian critics have claimed. "Indeed, this is the only joint Palestinian-Israeli document which states that the refugee problem should be resolved on the basis of (UN General Assembly) Resolution 194" which calls for return of, or compensation for, the refugees. The Palestinian parliament has refused to adopt a proposal condemning the Geneva Initiative but has voted against its official endorsement. Abed Rabbo said US Secretary of State Colin Powell took an "encouraging" stand during talks in Washington, but this did not mean that the US administration as a whole endorsed the plan. "We told the Americans that the Geneva document complements the 'roadmap,' which does not feature the details of a final settlement," he said, referring to the US-backed peace plan which calls for an end to violence and the creation of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel by 2005. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
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