VZCZCXYZ0020
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHJM #4570/01 2921421
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 191421Z OCT 06
FM AMCONSUL JERUSALEM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5483
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY

UNCLAS JERUSALEM 004570 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE; NEA/IPA FOR 
WILLIAMS/SHAMPAINE/STEINGER; NSC FOR ABRAMS/DORAN/WATERS; 
TREASURY FOR SZUBIN/LOEFFLER/NUGENT/HIRSON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV ECON ETRD KWBG KPAL IS
SUBJECT: PALESTINIANS SEEK PROGRESS ON GAZA-WEST BANK LINK 
AMA IMPLEMENTATION 
 
REF: A. JERUSALEM 4511 
 
     ¶B. JERUSALEM 4472 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary:  ConGenoffs, accompanied by USSC, USAID and 
Embassy Tel Aviv representatives, met October 17 with 
Palestinians who were involved in the negotiation of the 
Agreement on Movement and Access (AMA).  The informal 
meeting, the third and final in a series of preliminary 
brainstorming discussions intended to reinvigorate AMA 
implementation efforts, focused on the implementation of a 
Gaza-West Bank link as well as on movement within the West 
Bank (reported SEPTEL). The Palestinians, led by 
representatives of the PLO's Negotiations Support Unit (NSU) 
and including former Minister of Planning Ghassan al-Khatib, 
reiterated that they had never found the initial Israeli 
proposal for a passenger convoy feasible, but they are still 
willing to accept those suggestions as a pilot program for 
moving people between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. While 
truck convoy discussions had not commenced in late 2005, the 
NSU reviewed the successful truck convoy system that operated 
between 1996 and 2000 and advocated a similar operation for 
AMA truck convoys. End Summary. 
 
----------------- 
Passenger Convoys 
----------------- 
 
¶2.  (U) The original GOI proposal for the movement of 
passenger by bus, which specified one round-trip convoy per 
day and placed restrictions on who could use the busses, 
would have allowed only Gaza Palestinian identity card 
holders to travel, excluding West Bank ID holders and those 
without Palestinian IDs. Those using the busses would be 
limited to a maximum stay in the West Bank of ten days, and 
there would have been limited access for males aged 16 to 35. 
Negotiations stalled in December of 2005 when the Palestinian 
Authority requested a specific time-frame when the pilot 
could be re-evaluated and, if appropriate, opened to both 
Gazans and West Bankers with a more flexible length of stay 
policy. 
 
¶3. (U) According to former Minister of Planning Ghassan 
al-Khatib, the Palestinians had agreed to accept what they 
considered to be an inadequate proposal from the GOI for the 
passenger convoys at the recommendation of the Consul 
General. Al-Khatib said, "We said, 'we agree that this is a 
beginning. We agree to start,'" with the understanding that 
it was a start and would be expanded and improved. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
Permits Are Not The Solution 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (U) Zeinah Salahi, legal advisor for the NSU, said for 
those for whom the convoys would not work (those who needed 
to stay longer) or who weren't eligible for the convoys, the 
GOI had said they would expand the number of humanitarian 
permits. She said that far from solving the issue, the 
situation had gotten worse. While the PA is permitted to 
request humanitarian permits for medical cases and students, 
al-Khatib said the number of permits actually issued had 
declined dramatically, adding that if the crossings are 
closed the permit is invalid. Convoys, as a system for 
internal Palestinian movement, should operate even during 
closure when Palestinian access to Jerusalem and green-line 
Israel is denied, Salahi noted. 
 
--------------------------------- 
A Useful Model For Truck Convoys: 
The Safe Passage Protocol 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (U) Salahi suggested that the 1996-2000 system for truck 
movement could serve as a useful model for truck convoys 
under the AMA. Salahi said that for several years prior to 
the second Intifada, there was a "healthy movement" of goods 
from Karni and Tarqumiya, with as many as 300 trucks per day 
traveling in convoys of 15 trucks on several routes, not just 
to and from the West Bank, but to Israeli ports and packing 
houses as well. Salahi said each convoy contained 15 trucks 
and had an Israeli army escort in the front and rear. Trucks 
were required to arrive at the crossing one hour prior to 
exiting Gaza or the West Bank for security screening. There 
were no security incidents involving the truck convoys. 
 
 
¶6.  (U) Participants in the meeting said they were open to a 
variety of means to insure the security of the truck convoys, 
including Israeli escorts or tracking devices as well as new 
scanning technologies to check the goods being transported at 
the crossings. Saad Khatib, a Trade Policy Advisor with 
PalTrade, said that once a means to transport goods is 
established investors from the private sector would "find a 
way" to fill any gaps in funding and technology. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
Next Steps: Implementing the Pilot Program 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (U)   Al-Khatib noted that the Palestinian side would 
likely still be willing to start with the more restricted 
passenger convoy proposal. Both Salahi and al-Khatib agree 
that finding a way to establish a connection between the West 
Bank and Gaza is vital to both Gaza's current economic 
survival and to the future establishment of a viable 
Palestinian state. Al-Khatib said, "Gaza is not economically 
viable on its own. The Israelis not only disengaged Gaza from 
Israel, but they also disengaged it from the West Bank." 
 
WALLES