THE Palestine Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, said yesterday that there "is a real crisis in the peace process". He said Israel has "breached what has been agreed upon" by deciding to build a new settlement in the environs of East Jerusalem and refusing to redeploy from more than 9 per cent of the West Bank.
Mr Arafat characterised Israel's actions as "a conspiracy against the Palestinians".
Protesting at Israel's policies the head of the Palestinian negotiating team, Mr Mahmud Abbas (known as Abu Mazen), tendered his resignation to Mr Arafat, who was not expected to accept it. Mr Abbas is not only the president's deputy and acknowledged successor but also played a chief role in the Oslo accords. An acceptance of Mr Abbas's resignation would signal Palestinian abandonment of the peace process.
Mr Arafat is already facing a threat of resignation by several ministers if he does not freeze negotiations with Israel. The Palestinian Minister of Higher Education, Dr Hanan Ashrawi, said these ministers feel "there is no peace process" involving negotiations between two sides.
Instead, "there is only one side dictating terms and carrying out unilateral measures which are undermining the whole peace process."
She admitted that these ministers wanted to send a message to Mr Arafat, as well as to Israel, that the Palestinians must adopt a "unanimous position" against Israel's decisions to build a new settlement at Jabal Abu Ghneim, which the Israelis call "Har Homa", near Jerusalem.
The Palestinians are also angered by the Israelis unilaterally determining the extent of their pull out from the West Bank, and closing down Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem.
Yesterday the Speaker of the Palestinian Council, Mr Ahmad Qurei (Abu Ala), who negotiated the breakthrough First Oslo Accord of September 1993, also called for suspension of talks with Israel.
The Palestine Authority, which now exercises full control over only the seven main towns comprising 3 per cent of the West Bank, expected Israel to pull its troops out of 25-30 per cent, extending the Authority's exclusive control over the villages and hamlets where the bulk of the population lives.
According to the second Oslo accord signed in Washington in September 1995, this redeployment should have been completed by the end of 1995, three weeks before Palestinian presidential and council elections were held on January 20th, 1996.
Further Israeli withdrawals from the countryside, excluding settlements and military bases, should have begun soon after the inauguration of the Council last April.
