NEWSWEEK: How long have you been in Abu Dis?
KOREI: A week, but this isn’t the first time. According to all the agreements and understandings, as speaker of the council, they should not deal with me in this manner. I’m not even allowed to travel to Ramallah without coordination.
Even though you have a VIP pass [issued by Israel to Palestinian officials]?
My VIP pass expired in December, 2000, and the Israelis haven’t renewed it since then. This is the way Israelis deal with all Palestinians whether they are from the Palestinian Authority, businessmen, intellectuals, university students–as if they are not human beings. For more than a year, all our people are in a prison, whether in a building or inside your village.
But Israel imposed this measure in response to two horrible suicide attacks. They say the closures are meant to prevent bombers from moving around.
Let’s assume that’s true. I’m among those who call for security and stability but it will only happen through negotiations. The Israeli way only creates a volume of enmity…. This is a conflict of 100 years and therefore we have enough enmity. This is what we tried to do away with at Oslo.
Is the Oslo agreement dead?
I wouldn’t say dead. The framework still exists. The majority of the people on both sides want to continue the process.
Tell me about your meetings with Ariel Sharon.
I met him at the talks at Wye Plantation (in the United States in 1998). I met him at his ranch twice, at a house in Jerusalem with a common friend. I’ve met him more than six times.
But as Prime Minister?
Just once, a year ago at his residence in Jerusalem.
What kind of person is he?
When you meet with him on a personal level, he’s warm. You feel that he wants to be friendly, that he’s not an aggressive man. And he listened carefully to my points of view. He never showed disrespect. But unfortunately, the performance on the ground is different. It seems to me that the problem with Sharon is the settlements. He considers himself the father of the settlement movement. But with the settlements there will be no peace. The day he says something different about settlements, everything will change.
Some people believe Sharon will make a bold peace offer to the Palestinians after the elections. What do you think?
Sharon tries to show that he is a man of peace, that he wants peace. But what kind of peace? That’s the problem. He’s offering very little…. Sharon was very polite and very warm. But if he thinks any Palestinian can accept his plan for the West Bank, he’s foolish.
What plan would be acceptable?
An independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. I don’t think Sharon wants an agreement that can satisfy the minimum Palestinian needs. Most people, whether American or Israeli, now agree to the creation of a Palestinian state but the question is what kind of state–what size and what terms of reference. I don’t think a state is viable with settlements in place.
But you and others turned down an offer that came very close to a full Israeli withdrawal two years ago at the Taba talks [on the Egyptian coast].
I was chief negotiator at Taba and I said myself that we were closer than ever before to reaching an agreement. That was the first time we spoke about the details. We spoke about the 1967 borders with some modifications. Maps were brought out.
Maybe it was a mistake not to grab the deal?
I’m sure that if we had three months more after Taba to continue talking, we would have reached an agreement. Unfortunately, (former prime minister Ehud) Barak lost the election. I’ll tell you something I haven’t said publicly before. President (Yasir) Arafat asked me to go to Taba and I was reluctant. I asked him what he wanted from the talks and he said explicitly, ‘Try your best to reach an agreement. Whatever you and your colleagues accept, I will endorse.’
Two years later, the U.S. “road map” for ending the conflict envisages a Palestinian state but not for several years.
That’s not a problem. Show me what’s at the end of the tunnel. Give me guarantees. Even if it’s a difficult road, if we see the end clearly, we can reach the target. We need to know that there will be a state but also what kind of state. That’s what we need.
How will things unfold after the Israeli election on Jan. 28? Do you think Israel will expel Arafat?
What would Israel achieve by expelling Arafat? To expel Arafat means for the Palestinians destroying any hopes of talks or peace.
Why haven’t we seen real reforms implemented in the Palestinian Authority?
Reform for the Palestinians is our target. But unfortunately the situation on the ground doesn’t let us move on these reforms. I’m unable to go to my own office in Ramallah. And this is humiliating.
Washington has pushed for the appointment of a Prime Minister who would assume some of Arafat’s power. Why hasn’t that happened?
I support restructuring of the Palestinian political system. This is what we mean by drafting a constitution. What kind of reforms–parliamentarian or presidential, this is the issue being debated. President Arafat is not against appointing a Prime Minister but he is against bringing one down from a helicopter and dropping him on the Palestinians by force.
