Labour, Likud and the colonisation of the occupied territories: the failure of peace

• Main Author: Ferran Izquierdo Brichs
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) 2002-06-01
• Series: Revista CIDOB d'Afers Internacionals
• Subjects: Oriente Medio; acuerdos de paz; negociaciones.
• Online Access: http://www.cidob.org/es/content/download/4778/47722/file/57-58izquierdo.pdf

Continuity in the positions of the Labour Party and Likud relative to the occupied Palestinian territories is the main cause of the failure of the peace process in the Middle East. The ups and downs of these ten years of negotiations, the progress and the setbacks cannot be explained by only looking at an account of the process. One must go back in time and analyse the development of thinking among the principal elements of Israeli politics relative to the goal of Jewish colonisation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the problem of controlling the Palestinian population of the occupied territories.Only in this way can one understand the different positions of the Tel Aviv government regarding peace and their refusal to take the one step that could end the conflict: withdrawal from all the territory occupied in June 1967.