Article74 Magazine

Human rights issues were on the agenda of the 6th round of the Washington peace talks, when the old-new Israeli delegation expressed the new Israeli government’s readiness to take measures to improve the living conditions in the Occupied Territories in order to create a better climate for the peace negotiations among the local Palestinian population. 
During the 7th round, an informal Israeli-Palestinian study group set out to discuss a list of 12 central human rights demands presented by the Palestinian delegation, among others the issue of family reunification. Whoever might have had some hope for a constructive discussion of human rights issues in this study group was quickly disappointed by the Israelis’ stubborn rejection of all essential elements. “They asked us to bring cases of persons who have a residency problem. From the few answers they were ready to give we understand, that they do not regard family reunification as a basic right, but as something which has to be solved case by case. And they want us, the Palestinian delegation, to take on the role of mediators between them and the distressed families”, reports Dr. Mamdouh Al-Aker, Head of the Palestinian subcommittee on human rights in the Washington peace talks. “We also understand that the Israeli side wants to keep things basically unchanged in the interim period, i.e. family reunifications will be granted to first degree relatives only, after they are cleared by the Israeli intelligence - and there seems to be some of an annual quota.” 

The Key to the Bridge will be Israeli - with Palestinian Border Police Allowed at the Bridge ... 
The central question of who will control movement between the Occupied Territories and Jordan over the bridges during the interim period was not discussed explicitly. However, from the complex somewhat puzzled audience of Arab and Palestinian delegates it appears, that there is no intention on the part of the Israeli government to concede its position as the sole decision-making authority to a Palestinian administration. The only new Israeli suggestion views the presence of Palestinian border police at the bridges, so that in the interim period, Palestinian travelers will have the pleasure of being questioned by their co-nationals, in addition to the Israeli and Jordanian security checks. 
The informal study group on human rights met three times without making any progress. “Following this disappointing seventh round, and especially after frequent attempts by the Israeli delegation to condition improvements in the field of human rights on Palestinian consent to their apartheid scheme for the interim period, we have decided to stall the discussion about human rights issues until there will be a new Israeli offer.” (Dr. Mamdouh Al-Aker to ARTICLE 74). 
The eighth round of the Washington Peace Talks was just about to end - human rights matters had not been raised. Palestinians had sent a reduced delegation in order to protest against the lack of progress - when the issue of Palestinian physical presence in the Occupied Territories was brutally set on the agenda, this time by the Israeli government and its mass deportation of 413 alleged Hamas activists.