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A New Palestinian Offer for Peace with Israel

(Wall Street Journal) Elliot Kaufman - "We want cooperation with Israel, we want coexistence," says Sheikh Wadee' al-Jaabari, 48, leader of the most influential clan in the West Bank city of Hebron, south of Jerusalem. Sheikh Jaabari and four other leading Hebron sheikhs have signed a letter pledging peace and full recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Their plan is for Hebron to break out of the Palestinian Authority, establish an emirate of its own, and join the Abraham Accords. Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat, a former mayor of Jerusalem, has brought Jaabari and other sheikhs to his home and met with them more than a dozen times since February. They asked him to present the letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The letter seeks a timetable for negotiations to join the Abraham Accords and "a fair and decent arrangement that would replace the Oslo Accords, which only brought damage, death, economic disaster and destruction." The Oslo Accords, agreed to by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1990s, "have brought upon us the corrupt Palestinian Authority, instead of recognizing the traditional, authentic local leadership." The sheikhs propose that Israel admit workers from Hebron - a valuable source of income for Palestinian communities. Most permits for Palestinians to work in Israel were suspended after Oct. 7. The sheikhs pledge "zero tolerance" for terrorism by workers, "in contrast to the current situation in which the Palestinian Authority pays tributes to the terrorists." "Nobody in Israel believes in the PA, and you won't find many Palestinians who do either," Barkat says. "Sheikh Jaabari wants peace with Israel and to join the Abraham Accords, with the support of his fellow sheikhs. Who in Israel is going to say no?" Jaabari says the clans governed their own localities for hundreds of years. Then "the Israeli state decided for us. It brought the PLO and told the Palestinians: 'Take this.'" Another sheikh said, "The PLO called itself a liberation movement. But once they got control, they act only to steal the money of the people. They don't have the right to represent us - not them and not Hamas, only we ourselves." The sheikhs say they can remove the PA from Hebron in a week, or a day, depending on how aggressively they move. "Just don't get involved," one Hebron sheikh advises Israel.
2025-07-06 00:00:00
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