
The Geneva Initiative, also known as the Geneva Accord, is a draft ''Permanent Status Agreement'' to end the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing military and political conflict about Territory, land and self-determination within the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation ...
, based on previous official negotiations, international resolutions, the
Quartet Roadmap,
the Clinton Parameters
The Clinton Parameters (, ''Mitveh Clinton'', ''Ma'ayir Clinton'') were guidelines for a permanent status agreement to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, proposed during the final weeks of the Presidential transition from Bill Clinton ...
, and the
Arab Peace Initiative
The Arab Peace Initiative (; ), 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 Beirut Summit and re-endorsed at the 2007 Arab Le ...
.
[Geneva Initiative]
FAQ
The document was finished on 12 October 2003.
[Geneva Accord – A Model Israeli-Palestinian Peace Agreement](_blank)
, 12 October 2003,
The Accord was prepared in secret for over 2 years before the 50-page document was officially launched on 1 December 2003, at a ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland.
[The Geneva Accord](_blank)
''Haaretz'', December 2003 (the article apparently shows a wrong publication date)
Hauser, ''The New York Times'', 5 December 2003 Among its creators were formal negotiators and architects of previous rounds of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations,
including former Israeli minister and politician
Yossi Beilin
Joseph "Yossi" Beilin (; born 12 June 1948) is an Israeli politician who has served in multiple ministerial and leadership positions in the Israeli government. Much of his political career was in the Labour Party. He also served as chairman of t ...
and former
Palestinian Authority
The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...
minister
Yasser Abed Rabbo
Yasser Abed Rabbo () also known by his '' kunya'', Abu Bashar () (born 1944) is a Palestinian politician and a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) Executive Committee.
Biography Early life and career
Born in Jaffa in 1944 ...
. Both noted that the Geneva accord did not obligate either of their respective governments, even though Abed Rabbo was a minister at the time of writing. The Initiative got broad international support, but was heavily criticised by Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon ( ; also known by his diminutive Arik, ; 26 February 192811 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the prime minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006.
Born in Kfar Malal in Mandatory Palestin ...
.
[Haaretz, 12 October 2003]
A welcome and legitimate initiative
/ref>
In September 2009, a detailed expanded version of the plan was released. The annexes serve as a supplement to the Geneva Accord, outlining the practical measures required for successful implementation of the two-state solution
The two-state solution is a proposed approach to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, by creating two states on the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. It is often contrasted with the one-state solution, which is the esta ...
. They cover key issues including security, border crossings, the Implementation and Verification Group (IVG), roads, water management, environmental concerns, the economy, and the division of Jerusalem.[Geneva Initiative]
"Annexes"
, Ramallah and Tel Aviv, 2009
On 25 January 2022, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) announced it would gradually withdraw its financial support for the Geneva Initiative, effectively ending it by 2023.
Outline
The Geneva Initiative addresses and presents a comprehensive solution to all issues vital to ensuring the end of the conflict and the realization of the national visions of both parties. It would give the Palestinians almost all of the West Bank
The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
and Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...
drawing Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
's borders close to what existed prior to the Israeli control of territory at the culmination of the 1967 war.
The plan has much similarity with the 2000 Camp David 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 an ...
and Taba Summit
The Taba Summit (also known as Taba Talks, Taba Conference or shortened to Taba) were talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, held from 21 to 27 January 2001 in Taba, Egypt. The talks took place during a political transition period � ...
proposals, and Olmert's 2008 Napkin map. Only settlements along the Green Line would be annexed by Israel with mutual land swaps, including Ma'ale Adumim
Ma'ale Adumim (; ) is an urban Israeli settlement organized as a city council in the West Bank, seven kilometers () east of Jerusalem. Ma'ale Adumim achieved city status in 1991. In 2015, its population was . It is located along Highway 1, whi ...
, Pisgat Ze'ev
Pisgat Ze'ev (, lit. ''Ze'ev's Peak'') is an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem and the largest residential neighborhood in Jerusalem with a population of over 50,000. Pisgat Ze'ev was established by Israel as one of the city's five Ring Neig ...
and . In the Geneva Initiative, Ariel
Ariel may refer to:
Film and television
*Ariel Award, a Mexican Academy of Film award
* ''Ariel'' (film), a 1988 Finnish film by Aki Kaurismäki
*, a Russian film directed by Yevgeni Kotov
* ''ARIEL Visual'' and ''ARIEL Deluxe'', a 1989 and 1991 ...
would be dismantled and the Palestinians be given more sovereignty over East Jerusalem. Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
would be divided administratively, with East Jerusalem ("Al-Quds") serving as the capital of the Palestinian state and West Jerusalem ("Yerushalayim") as the capital of Israel. A Multinational Force would play an important role. In return for removing most of the Israeli settlement
Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...
s, the Palestinians would limit their "right of return
The right of return is a principle in international law which guarantees everyone's right of return to, or re-entry to, their country of citizenship. The right of return is part of the broader human rights concept of freedom of movement and is al ...
" of refugees to Israel to a number specified by the Israeli government and would put an end to any further claims and demands from Israel.
Summary
Key concepts
The key concepts included in the Geneva Accord are:
* A mutual Israeli–Palestinian declaration of an end to the conflict and future claims.
* Mutual recognition of both nations and their right to an independent state.
* Almost complete Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders, with a limited number of settlement blocs on the basis of a 1:1 land swap.
* A comprehensive solution to the issue of the Palestinian refugees based on the Clinton Parameters
The Clinton Parameters (, ''Mitveh Clinton'', ''Ma'ayir Clinton'') were guidelines for a permanent status agreement to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, proposed during the final weeks of the Presidential transition from Bill Clinton ...
(2000); of which the main component will be compensation and a return to an independent Palestinian State
Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, collectively known as th ...
.
* Jewish Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and Arab Jerusalem as Palestine’s capital with Jewish areas under Israeli sovereignty and Arab areas under Palestinian sovereignty.
* A non-militarized Palestinian state and detailed security arrangements.
Refugees
The proposal for the Palestinian refugee
Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country, village or house over the course of the 1948 Palestine war and during the 1967 Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refug ...
problem is modeled after UNGAR 194, UNSC Resolution 242, and the Arab Peace Initiative. It outlines a compensation plan for recognition of "Refugeehood" and loss of property and a remuneration plan for states that have hosted Palestinian refugees. The Geneva Accord outlines multiple options and modalities for refugees to exercise a choice of permanent place of residence (PPR) in accordance with clauses set forth in the document, some of which include the option to elect to remain in their present host countries, or relocate to third countries, among them Israel, at the sovereign discretion of third countries.
Borders and territory
The Geneva Accord bases the International Border between the States of Palestine and Israel on the June 4th 1967 lines, in accordance with UNSC Resolution 242
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 (S/RES/242) was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on November 22, 1967, in the aftermath of the Six-Day War. It was adopted under Chapter VI of the UN Charter. The resolution was sponso ...
[UNSC Resolution 242](_blank)
22 November 1967 and UNSC Resolution 338
United Nations Security Council Resolution 338 was a three-line resolution adopted by the UN Security Council on 22 October 1973, which called for a ceasefire in the Yom Kippur War in accordance with a joint proposal by the United States and th ...
,[UNSC Resolution 338](_blank)
22 October 1973 with reciprocal modifications in the form of landswaps on a 1:1 basis. Israel will annex several areas currently densely populated by Jewish settlements near the Green Line (such as Gush Etzion
Gush Etzion (, ' Etzion Bloc) is a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the Judaean Mountains, directly south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the West Bank. The core group includes four Jewish agricultural villages that were founded in 1943� ...
). In return for areas annexed by Israel from the West Bank
The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
, the Palestinians will receive territory of equal area and quality adjacent mostly to the Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...
. The State of Israel will assume responsibility for resettling the Israelis living in what would be determined as Palestinian sovereign territory such as Ariel
Ariel may refer to:
Film and television
*Ariel Award, a Mexican Academy of Film award
* ''Ariel'' (film), a 1988 Finnish film by Aki Kaurismäki
*, a Russian film directed by Yevgeni Kotov
* ''ARIEL Visual'' and ''ARIEL Deluxe'', a 1989 and 1991 ...
and other settlements.
Jerusalem
The sharing of Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
will be addressed along the Clinton Parameters. Jew
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
ish Jerusalem will serve as Israel’s capital and Arab
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world.
Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
Jerusalem as Palestine’s capital. Each state would be sovereign over the neighborhoods predominately inhabited by its respective community. The Old City will be open and free to movement and the parties will commit to safeguarding the character, holiness, and freedom of worship in the city. The Implementation and Verification Group will act as an impartial international presence to monitor and verify the preservation of cultural heritage in the Old City in accordance with UNESCO World Heritage List
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...
rules. The IVG will establish an Old City Policing Unit to perform policing duties to defuse local tensions and resolve disputes.
International supervision
An Implementation and Verification Group (IVG) will be established to facilitate, assist in, guarantee, monitor, and resolve disputes relating to the implementation of the agreement. Under the authority of the IVG would be a Multinational Force (MF) which will serve to provide security guarantees to the Parties, act as a deterrent, and oversee the implementation of the relevant provisions of the agreement. The specific details related to the composition of the MF and responsibilities of the IVG as a whole are outlined in the annexes.
Support
Palestine and Israel
Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat (4 or 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, Presid ...
praised the "brave initiative that opens the door to peace". It was reported by Palestinian sources that Arafat and Ahmed Qurei
Ahmed Ali Mohammad Qurei (also spelled Qureia or Qurie; , ; 26 March 1937 – 22 February 2023), also known by his '' kunya'' Abu Alaa ( ), was a Palestinian politician who served as the second prime minister of the Palestinian National Authori ...
had approved the Geneva initiative in principle but not the details, and sent official representatives to the launching ceremony.
''The Jerusalem Post
''The Jerusalem Post'' is an English language, English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate of Mandatory Palestine, Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''Th ...
'' reported on 10 March 2008 that influential Palestinian figure Marwan Barghouti
Marwan Barghouti (also transliterated al-Barghuthi; ; born 6 June 1959) is a Palestinian political leader who has served as an elected legislator and has been an advocate of a two-state solution prior to his imprisonment by Israel.[Haim Oron
Haim "Jumes" Oron (; born 26 March 1940) is an Israeli politician and former Minister of Agriculture. He was head of the political party Meretz, for whom he served as a member of the Knesset.
Biography
Oron was born in Givatayim and grew up ...]
"that it was possible for Israel and the Palestinians to reach a final-status agreement along the lines of the Geneva Initiative". A June 2010 poll conducted by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah found support for the Geneva/Clinton Parameters
The Clinton Parameters (, ''Mitveh Clinton'', ''Ma'ayir Clinton'') were guidelines for a permanent status agreement to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, proposed during the final weeks of the Presidential transition from Bill Clinton ...
running at about 49% amongst Palestinians and 52% among Israelis. The level of opposition was equal at 49% in the Palestinian community, but stood at 37% for Israelis.[PSR – Survey Research Unit, Press Release](_blank)
, 29 June 2010
United States
* George W. Bush: "he Geneva Accord
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads
* He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English
* He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana)
* Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter call ...
is productive, so long as they adhere to the principles ofight off terror, that there must be security, and there must be the emergence of a Palestinian state that is democratic and free."[Bush: Geneva is 'productive'](_blank)
Nathan Guttman, ''Haaretz'', 5 December 2003
* Colin Powell: "The U.S. remains committed to the President's two-state vision and to the road map, but we also believe that projects such as yours are important in helping to sustain an atmosphere of hope in which Israelis and Palestinians can discuss mutually acceptable resolutions to the difficult issues that confront them."[Powell lends support to Geneva Accord](_blank)
Aluf Been, ''Haaretz'', 9 November 2003
* Bill Clinton: "That's why the agreement in Geneva is so important. ... Such efforts prove that Israelis and Palestinians of goodwill can agree on even the most vexing settlement issues."
Bill Clinton, ''USA Today'', 3 December 2003
Other international support
* Fifty-eight former presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers and other global leaders, among them former presidents Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union and F.W. de Klerk of South Africa, issued a statement expressing "strong support" for the plan. Other world leaders who voiced their backing included King Mohammed VI of Morocco
Mohammed VI (; born 21 August 1963) is King of Morocco. A member of the Alawi dynasty, he acceded to the throne on 23 July 1999, upon the death of his father, King Hassan II.
Upon ascending to the throne, Mohammed initially introduced severa ...
, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Clinton.
Criticism
Palestinian criticism
Palestinian support was not universal. Some strongly opposed the plan and its apparent trade-off of the Palestinian right of return
The Palestinian right of return is the political position or principle that Palestinian refugees, both Immigrant generations#First generation, first-generation refugees ( people still alive ) and their descendants ( people ), have a right to ...
in exchange for statehood.
Jamal Zakut, one of the participants and drafters of the plan from the Palestinian side, argued that the section dealing with the refugee issue has "certain ambiguity" and the whole purpose of this document is only to be a model for a future agreement. "The document does not indicate or ensure full and collective return of millions of Palestinians but neither does it waive this right … the document is only another tool by which we continue the struggle to restore our national rights and achieve peace as confirmed by international community and nothing more".
Israeli criticism
Upon the Geneva Accord's release in 2003, the government of Israel headed by Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon ( ; also known by his diminutive Arik, ; 26 February 192811 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the prime minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006.
Born in Kfar Malal in Mandatory Palestin ...
criticized the accord.
A publicity campaign on the Israel Broadcasting Authority
The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA; ) was Israel's public broadcaster from 1948 to 2017, succeeded by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation.
History
The Israel Broadcasting Authority was an outgrowth of the radio station '' Kol Yi ...
stations was cancelled after an Israel Radio investigation raised suspicions of questionable financing. Silvan Shalom
Zion Silvan Shalom (; born 4 August 1958) is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud between 1992 and 2015. He held several prominent ministerial positions, including Deputy leaders of Israel#Vice Prime Minister, Vi ...
, who was the Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel
Foreign may refer to:
Government
* Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries
** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government
** Foreign office and foreign minister
* United S ...
at the time, revealed the significant foreign national funding of Beilin's plan, and the Israeli government protested this foreign meddling in internal affairs.
Follow-up
Since the writing of the Geneva Accord, the Geneva Initiative developed two cooperating not-for-profit associations / Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), Heskem (H.L. Education for Peace/Geneva Initiative-Israel) on the Israeli side and their Palestinian counterpart Palestine Peace Coalition/Geneva Initiative (PPC/GI). The organizations work together and among their respective communities to promote the Accord’s mission of a negotiated agreement between Israel and Palestine, and to prepare public opinion and leadership to be accepting of the compromises required to solve the conflict.
The Geneva Initiative NGOs educate and campaign, both locally and internationally, that it is in the best interest of Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate directly in order to reach a sustainable two-state solution.
See also
* Israeli–Palestinian peace process
Intermittent discussions are held by various parties and proposals put forward in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict through a peace process. Since the 1970s, there has been a parallel effort made to find terms upon which ...
* Projects working for peace among Israelis and Arabs
A project is a type of assignment, typically involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a specific objective.
An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of events: a "set of interrelated tasks to be ...
* List of Middle East peace proposals
This is a reversed chronological list of peace proposals in the Middle East, often abbreviated under the Mideast peace concept.
Egyptian Crisis reconciliation
*Egyptian constitutional referendum, 2012
*Egyptian constitutional referendum, 2014
S ...
* 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 ...
* Middle East economic integration
Middle East economic integration refers to the process of improving economic cooperation, coordination, and connectivity among countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This process aims to create a unified economic space that ...
;Arab–Israeli diplomacy and treaties
* Paris Peace Conference, 1919
Paris () is the capital and largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the fourth-most populous city in the European Union and the 30th most densely pop ...
* Faisal–Weizmann Agreement (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 retre ...](_blank)
* Egypt–Israel peace treaty
The Egypt–Israel peace treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., United States, on 26 March 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords. The Egypt–Israel treaty was signed by Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, Prime Minist ...
(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
The Oslo Accords are a pair of interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995. They marked the st ...
(1993, 1995)
* 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"),; Hebrew transliteration, transliterated: ''Heskem Ha-Shalom beyn Yisra'el Le-Yarden''; ; Arabic transliteration: ' ...
(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 an ...
* Froman–Amayreh Agreement
References
External links
*
Summary Accord + Annexes
Official Israeli website
Official Palestinian website
German website
{{Arab-Israeli diplomacy
Israeli–Palestinian peace process
Proposed treaties
2003 in international relations
2003 in Israel
2003 in Palestine
Diplomatic conferences in Switzerland
Treaties of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict