Elon Peace Plan
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The Elon Peace Plan is a solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict proposed in 2002 by Rabbi Binyamin Elon, who was the Israeli tourism minister at the time he put forward his proposal. The plan advocates the formal annexation of West Bank and Gaza by Israel and that the now stateless Palestinians will be transferred to Jordan. It is considered irrelevant by the majority of Israelis and all Palestinians. However, a 2005 survey showed a plurality of Israelis support something along the lines of the Elon Peace Plan (as contrasted with the controversial Sharon Plan for evacuation of Jews from the territories).
In more details, the plan calls for Jordan to accept the inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza as citizens (in 1988 Jordan reneged on its claim to the West Bank and took away citizenship of Palestinians living there). Those new Jordanian citizens who choose not to accept the invitation to move away, would be welcome to remain in Israel as permanent resident foreign nationals so long as they remained peaceful and law abiding residents. All these actions should be done in agreement with Jordan and the Palestinian population.
Elon and Moledet (Elon's party and the chief support of this plan) propose that "Israel, the United States and the international community will allocate resources for the completion of the exchange of populations that began in 1948 and the full rehabilitation of the refugees and their absorption and naturalization in various countries".
Elon continues to advance his plan. See his 2004 visit to Jordan referenced below.
Debate
Advocates of the plan point to what they believe would derive from its implementation:
- A permanent end to the conflict would be accomplished without further delay.
- Palestinian refugees will benefit by gaining citizenship and accompanying rights in their respective future countries.
- There would no longer be a threat to the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, even after expanding its borders to include the West Bank and Gaza.
They add that active endorsement of the plan would bring as much legitimacy to it as any international plan, and that current popularity has nothing to do with the viability or potency of the proposals. For a complete overview of the advocate position, see the full text of Elon's proposal in the External links section.
Detractors of the plan claim Palestinians would no more agree to be transferred than Jews would be, nor would Jordan agree to accept them. Hence, the plan cannot be accomplished as stated; so it is irrelevant. Others have gone as far as accusing Moledet of cynically advocating transfer by agreement, while secretly harboring plans for forced transfer, pointing to a number of alleged statements by Moledet's founder, Zeevi, in favor of forced transfer (see the Rehavam Zeevi page for details).
Arab-Israeli peace diplomacy and treaties
- Paris Peace Conference, 1919
- Faisal-Weizmann Agreement (1919)
- 1949 Armistice Agreements
- Camp David Accords (1978)
- Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty (1979)
- Madrid Conference of 1991
- Oslo Accords (1993)
- Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace (1994)
- Camp David 2000 Summit
- Peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- Projects working for peace among Israelis and Arabs
- List of Middle East peace proposals
- International law and the Arab-Israeli conflict
External links
- Full text of the Elon proposal (http://www.therightroadtopeace.com/eng/defaulteng.html) Right Road to Peace
- Radical New Plan For Mideast Peace (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29671)
- Official Site of the Moledet Party of Israel (http://www.moledet.org.il/english/index.html)
- Benny Elon Presented "Jordan is Palestine" Plan to Prince Hassan (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1192386/posts)
- Source for statistics on voting in Israel showing 5.5% support for the National Union in election of 2003 (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/is.html#Govt)
- International Roots of Transfer Concept (http://www.freeman.org/m_online/dec01/kohn.htm)
- Jordan renegs the West Bank (http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_jordan_renounce_claims.php)
- Mutagim Survey January 12, 2005 shows "39% of general Israeli population favors mass transfer of Palestinians" (http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42855)