BICOM

Key points

• Talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will take place in Jerusalem on Wednesday 14 August.
• This follows the Israeli cabinet decision on Sunday on the names of the first 26 of 104 Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences for terror offences, who are being released to pave the way for talks.
• Newly appointed US envoy Martin Indyk arrived in the region Sunday to prepare for talks, and will attend Wednesday’s meeting.
• The sides will focus on preparing an agenda and framework for the negotiation process going forward, with a follow up meeting already planned to be held in Jericho.

What is happening this week?

• The first formal meeting between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will take place in Jerusalem on Wednesday 14 August. This is the first meeting as part of the process to reach a final status agreement within nine months, announced by US Secretary of State at the end of July.
• On Sunday an Israeli cabinet committee agreed the list of the first 26 of the 104 Palestinians serving long sentences for terror offences, who are being released to pave the way for renewed talks. They will be released on Tuesday morning, after the Israeli high court hears appeals against the releases from family members of their victims.
• Also on Sunday, Israel’s housing ministry announced it was marketing around 1000 new units in existing major settlement blocks. Although it is reported that the US was forewarned that Israel would make such an announcement at the beginning of the process Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat warned Kerry to ““take the necessary action to ensure that Israel does not advance any of its settlement plans”.
• US envoy Martin Indyk arrived in the region on Sunday to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders to prepare for Wednesday’s meeting, which he will attend.

What is likely to take place in the meeting?

• Israeli negotiators in the room will be Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s personal representative Yitzhak Molcho, backed by foreign ministry legal expert and negotiator Tal Becker. On the Palestinian side will be veteran negotiator Saeb Erekat, accompanied another experienced PA official, Mohammed Shtayyeh. US envoy Martin Indyk is also expected to attend.
• The sides will first discuss how to practically manage the complex and multi-faceted talks going forward, e.g. whether to address all issues simultaneously, or in sequence, and whether to establish separate working groups on each of the core issues, or to bring in experts on the various issues only when needed. The parties will also have to decide if issues that have been agreed can be implemented in advance of a complete agreement, or if ‘nothing is agreed until everything is agreed’.
• At the meeting in Washington on 30 July, Kerry affirmed that “all core issues” were on the table and defined the goal as “a final status agreement over the course of the next nine months.” Addressing the core issues together is more in accord with Israel’s preference, as opposed to focusing firstly on borders, which the Palestinians have proposed.
• One of the hallmarks of the process so far has been the secrecy which Secretary Kerry and the parties have maintained. No official statement is expected after the talks and few concrete details are likely to be available. All sides fear that premature leaking of the details will create a political backlash which could scupper the process.

What is going to happen next?

• The parties have agreed the Jerusalem meeting will be followed up by a meeting in Jericho.
• However, around the formal meetings there are likely to be continuous contacts between the sides which are not picked up by the media, including preparatory work by negotiators, and possibly also backchannel contacts via intermediaries between Netanyahu and Abbas.
• The parties are also working in parallel on practical steps Israel will take in the West Bank to help the Palestinian Authority improve its infrastructure, and news of these measures will likely be announced in the coming days or weeks.
• On a separate track, Quartet envoy Tony Blair is leading a project promoted by John Kerry to develop major new plans for private sector investment in the Palestinian Territories.

Who are the prisoners being released?

• Salah Ahmed Ibrahim Mughdad: (Jailed since 1993, sentenced to life imprisonment) Murdered 70-year-old Holocaust survivor Israel Tenenbaum in the 1990s. Broke into a Netanya hotel and hit Tenenbaum on the head with iron bar.

 

• Barbakh Faiz Rajab Madhat: (Jailed since 1994, sentenced to life imprisonment) Murdered 61-year-old Moshe Beker on January 21 1994, when he arrived at his orchard and was ambushed by three terrorists. They had slept on site and waited for him. They attacked him, stabbed him to death with a knife and a pair of pruning shears, and fled.

 

• Al Haj Othman Amar Mustafa: (Jailed since 1989, sentenced to life imprisonment) Murdered Steven Rosenfeld on June 7, 1989. Rosenfeld went on a hike in the hills near Ariel, where he lived, when he encountered a group of shepherds who stole a knife that he had in his possession, stabbed him to death, and hid his body.

 

• Abdel Aal Sa’id Ouda Yusef: (Jailed since 1994, sentenced to 22 years imprisonment) Murdered Ian Sean Feinberg on April 18, 1983. Feinberg, who served for several years as an officer and lawyer in Gaza, had worked with commercial companies from Gaza and was murdered during a business meeting in Gaza City. Terrorists burst into the room and announced that they had come to kill the Jew. They then proceeded to murder Feinberg using a gun and an axe.

 

• Ramahi Salah Abdallah Faraj: (Jailed since 1992, sentenced to life-term imprisonment) Murdered 84-year-old Avraham Kinstler in July of 1992. Kinstler was ambushed and murdered with an axe by a terrorist as he arrived to work at his orchard.

 

• Abu Moussa Salam Ali Atiya: (Jailed since 1994, sentenced to life imprisonment) Murdered Holcaust survivor Isaac Rotenberg in a Petah Tikvah construction site with an axe. Rotenberg fell into a coma and died 2 days after the attack.