Former Legal Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and member of the delegation to the Israeli-Palestinian negotations
(Kol Israel Radio, March 11, 1997)
Q: [Interviewer Meir Einstein]: We now ask for your interpretation: does the government's decision regarding the first phase of redeployment constitute a breach of the agreements [with the Palestinians]?
A: [Attorney Joel Singer]: The Oslo Agreement and the Interim Agreement determine that all three phases of the redeployment are based on unilateral Israeli decisions. The government has decided on some redeployment of its forces, and therefore it has, at least formally, acted in accordance with the agreement. As to the extent of the redeployment, that is a political issue, not a legal one. The agreement left it up to Israel to decide on the three phases of redeployment. The only criterion set down by the agreement is that by the end of the third phase Israel should redeploy into specified locations, into the Israeli settlements and into certain "yellow" areas in which Israel will also have authority over security issues. However, the agreement does not state what the proportion between the three phases should be.
Q: In other words, Israel retains the authority to determine the extent of redeployment at this stage. You are saying, then, that there is no legal basis for the Palestinians' complaints.
A: Certainly. During the negotiations, the Palestinians indeed wanted the agreement to state that redeployment would be carried out in proportional, equally-sized phases. But, as any third-grader knows, if you don't know what X is, you also can't say what constitutes one third of X. Ultimately, this was left up to a unilateral Israeli decision. Again, the extent of the redeployment is of course subject to political considerations.
Q: During the negotiations over this part of the agreement, did the Palestinians exert pressure in an attempt to define exactly how much Israel would redeploy in each phase?
A: It's difficult to speak of pressure where negotiations are concerned. When you negotiate, each side tries to convince the other to accept its position. Pressure can be exerted by external means, and this was not done at the time. There was a Palestinian position, which, by the way, asked that by the end of the third phase Israel would retain 20 percent of West Bank. This was the Palestinians' opening position, which Israel rejected. The question of percentages - both how much of the territory would ultimately remain under Israel's control, and how much would be transferred to the Palestinians in the first two phases - remained subject to unilateral Israeli decisions.