During the last round of talks on permanent status issues, Israel had the temerity to propose border adjustments to take into consideration Israel’s “security” and existing settlements. This rationale is Israel’s stance on the permanent status issues to take into consideration “facts on the ground.” It is, therefore, not surprising that the Palestinian delegation’s reaction was at once astounded and “non-accommodating.”

This attempt betrays an Israeli attitude of immense irresponsibility and total disregard for International Law and the requirements of genuine peace. Israel is attempting to redraw the peace process to accommodate settlements, while subjecting the process to short-term and narrowly defined Israeli security requirements.

It is, thereby, undermining genuine, authentic, and long-term security that emerges from a just and permanent peace that would encompass both sides of the conflict and gain credibility and constituencies.

Particularly in the context of the permanent status issues at stake, the distortion of decades of occupation cannot be introduced either as a rationale for border adjustment or as the criteria for the shape of the final peace agreement.

Such an obsolete and self-destructive attitude is strictly inconsistent with the requisite mentality of peace. The future cannot be shaped along the lines of past inequities but must transform such a legacy into one of justice and legality.