The Beirut Summit (also known as the Arab Summit Conference) was a meeting of the Arab League in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

in March 2002 to discuss the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. At the time Yassar Arafat, the leader of Palestine, was under house-arrest in his Ramallah compound. The Israeli forces confined him and prevented him from attending the Beirut Summit. The meeting became especially noteworthy for the adoption, by the Arab states attending, of a proposal offering a comprehensive peace between the Arab countries and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, called the

Arab Peace Initiative The Arab Peace Initiative ( ar, مبادرة السلام العربية; ), also known as the Saudi Initiative (; ), is a 10 sentence proposal for an end to the Arab–Israeli conflict that was endorsed by the Arab League in 2002 at the Beiru ...

Arab Peace Initiative

The Arab Peace Initiative was floated by then acting Saudi regent Crown Prince Abdullah as a potential solution to both the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the

Arab–Israeli conflict The Arab–Israeli conflict is an ongoing intercommunal phenomenon involving political tension, military conflicts, and other disputes between Arab countries and Israel, which escalated during the 20th century, but had mostly faded out by the ...

. It was published on March 28, 2002, during the meeting of the Arab League at the Beirut Summit, and achieved the unanimous consent of all members of the Arab League. Considered a progressive proposal , it calls for the state of

to withdraw its forces from all the Occupied Territories, including the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...

, to recognize "an independent

Palestinian state Palestine ( ar, فلسطين, Filasṭīn), officially the State of Palestine ( ar, دولة فلسطين, Dawlat Filasṭīn, label=none), is a state located in Western Asia. Officially governed by the Palestine Liberation Organization ( ...

with East Jerusalem as its capital" in the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

and

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

, as well as a "just solution" for the

Palestinian refugees Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country over the course of the 1947–49 Palestine war (1948 Palestinian exodus) and the Six-Day War (1967 Palestinian exodu ...

. In exchange the Arab states affirmed that they would recognize the state of

, consider the Arab-Israeli conflict over and establish " normal relations" with Israel. The initiative is based upon: * The principle of

Land for peace Land for peace is a legalistic interpretation of UN Security Council Resolution 242 which has been used as the basis of subsequent Arab-Israeli peace making. The name ''Land for Peace'' is derived from the wording of the resolution's first operativ ...

* The conviction of the Arab countries that a military solution to the conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the parties The proposal, from

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

, offered Israel recognition by the Arab countries, including into peace agreements and normalisation of relations if Israel would: * withdraw from all territories occupied by Israel since the 1967

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...

, * provide a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem, and * recognize the establishment of a sovereign and

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

in the

and

The goals of the initiative are: * Full Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories occupied since June 1967 * Implementation of

United Nations Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

resolutions 242 and 338. * The establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital * A just solution to the Palestinian Refugee problem, to be agreed upon in accordance with section 11 of

UN General Assembly Resolution 194 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 is a resolution adopted near the end of the 1947–1949 Palestine war. The Resolution defines principles for reaching a final settlement and returning Palestine refugees to their homes. Article 11 o ...

. * The normalization of relations in the context of a comprehensive peace

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

's foreign minister stated: The Arab initiative put forth at the Beirut Summit in March offers comprehensive peace in the region based on the internationally recognized formulation of "land for peace" - a return to June 4, 1967, borders in exchange for normal relations and a collective peace treaty. In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres welcomed it and said: "... the details of every peace plan must be discussed directly between Israel and the Palestinians, and to make this possible, the Palestinian Authority must put an end to terror, the horrifying expression of which we witnessed just last night in Netanya,"MFA of Israeli government, 2002 article
referring to Netanya suicide attack perpetrated on previous evening which the Beirut Summit has failed to address. The somewhat obscure 4th section was inserted at Lebanese insistence and reflects its concern that the settlement of the refugee problem not be at what it considers the expense of

and its "demographic balance."

and Syria campaigned for the inclusion of a reference to United Nations Resolution 194, which emphasizes the Palestinian right of return to Israel. A compromise was eventually reached, citing the resolution but stating that the League would support any agreement between Israel and Palestinians on the issue.

Arab–Israeli peace diplomacy and treaties

Paris Peace Conference, 1919 Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

Faisal–Weizmann Agreement The Faisal–Weizmann Agreement was a 3 January 1919 agreement between Emir Faisal, the third son of Hussein ibn Ali al-Hashimi, King of the short-lived Kingdom of Hejaz, and Chaim Weizmann, a Zionist leader who had negotiated the 1917 Balfour ...

(1919) *

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Camp David Accords (1978) The Camp David Accords were a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retreat ...

Egypt–Israel peace treaty The Egypt–Israel peace treaty ( ar, معاهدة السلام المصرية الإسرائيلية, Mu`āhadat as-Salām al-Misrīyah al-'Isrā'īlīyah; he, הסכם השלום בין ישראל למצרים, ''Heskem HaShalom Bein Yisrael ...

(1979) *

Madrid Conference of 1991 The Madrid Conference of 1991 was a peace conference, held from 30 October to 1 November 1991 in Madrid, hosted by Spain and co-sponsored by the United States and the Soviet Union. It was an attempt by the international community to revive the ...

* Oslo Accords (1993) *

Israel–Jordan peace treaty The Israel–Jordan peace treaty (formally the "Treaty of Peace Between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan"), he, הסכם השלום בין ישראל לירדן; transliterated: ''Heskem Ha-Shalom beyn Yisra'el Le-Yarden'' ...

(1994) *

Camp David 2000 Summit The 2000 Camp David Summit was a summit meeting at Camp David between United States president Bill Clinton, Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat. The summit took place between 11 and 25 July 2000 and ...

* Israeli–Palestinian peace process *

Projects working for peace among Israelis and Arabs A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...

* List of Middle East peace proposals *

International law and the Arab–Israeli conflict The International law bearing on issues of Arab–Israeli conflict, which became a major arena of regional and international tension since the birth of Israel in 1948, history of the Arab–Israeli conflict, resulting in several disputes between a ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Arab League summit 2002 Israeli–Palestinian peace process Middle East peace efforts 2002 2002 in Lebanon Diplomatic conferences in Lebanon 21st-century diplomatic conferences History of Beirut 2002 in international relations 2002 conferences March 2002 events in Asia 2000s in Beirut he:היוזמה הסעודית