The signatories and supporters of the Geneva Accord are spreading the idea that the Accord will achieve a historic reconciliation, defined primarily as each party recognizing the other’s right to a state. Yet, the main issue does not lie in the recognition of a Palestinian state, but in the composition of the Palestinian state, as the kind of state the Accord refers to is the main reason why Palestinians reject the Accord. Reading the Accord, one sees that it is in line with the Apartheid Wall, entrapping and slicing the West Bank while being totally removed from the reality of the Occupation, which, like the Wall, continues unhindered.

Geneva’s Kind of Palestinian State: The Walled-in Palestinian Ghettos
The Accord discusses borders between two states; these borders are based on June 4, 1967 but are not the borders themselves. Attention is given to the role of borders but without any mention of the Wall although sections about territory, withdrawal, borders, and security are in line with the Wall’s path.

The Accord mentions that there will be Israeli presence in various locations in the West Bank. Some areas specified are the Jordan Valley and “two ‘EWS’ [Early Warning Stations] in the northern and central West Bank”. While the exact location of the EWS -- military bases with radar systems reaching as far as Iraq-- is not specified one already exists on land to be isolated by the Wall near the Jordan Valley, while other areas now or to be isolated in the north or central West Bank are probable candidates for additional EWS.

In the case of Jerusalem, Israel is already drawing boarders with the Wall which will be maintained and legitimized by the Accord which holds that Palestinians will get to control scattered neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. The southern Wall around the Bethlehem and Hebron districts also gives a clear indication of the Wall being in line with the Accord as one of the areas to be exchanged/annexed to Israel under the Accord is the whole western area of Bethlehem which, as seen in today’s Wall map, will be isolated west of the Wall.

Refugees, the Right of Return, and the Creation of New Refugees
As should be known, the most significant thing in the Accord is that it emphasizes that there will be no further claims by Palestinian refugees. The Wall Israel is building, aiming at expelling people from their homes, is a continuation of what the Accord considers a past that should be forgotten. The so-called “freedom of choice” of the refugees that the Accord stipulates does not only exclude the 1948 lands but also the West Bank and Gaza Strip-- it is not coincidental that the Wall surrounds communities’ residential areas while, isolating them from their land--their only potential for expansion. Altogether, the Wall and the current reality unequivocally tell the Palestinians: if you want peace you have to leave this land.

Geneva is a War Against Memory and Reality
The Accord in its entirety puts an end to the Palestinian just cause. The Accord is demanding the re-structuring of the curriculum and “cultural exchange programs” in order to rewrite history so that there will be no Nakba, no expulsion, no dispossession, no destroyed villages, no massacres, no martyrs, no destroyed homes, no confiscated lands…In such a way, the Accord like other Israeli agreements ensures that the present reality is the starting point of oppression and crimes whereas Palestinian resistance to such policies have no context, no history, all the while the basic reality of occupation is dissolved. The Accord is a war against memory.

Meanwhile, the Wall Continues
Continued Israeli presence in various forms—all of which are Occupation—ensures the continued stranglehold on Palestine. The Wall is and will continue to tighten the Israeli grip on Palestinian areas, prohibit movement and expansion, and further a permit system that legitimizes Israeli control; all ensuring that survival for Palestinians on their lands will be wholly impossible.

As the Wall continues daily and is some ¼ complete, there are few signs that it will be torn down. The lesson of the Oslo Accords is the existence of a schism between the rhetoric of “peace” and the continued expansion of settlements along with the rapid work of building the Wall throughout the West Bank. The Geneva Accord, if it succeeds, will be a major achievement for Zionism in negating and erasing history, denying Palestinians their inalienable rights, and deeming the Palestinian future to ghettoization and enslavement for the sake of the Jewish state.

The unabridged version of this article can be read at The Campaign Website