December 1, 2003	Monday	Shawwal 6, 1424

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GENEVA, Nov 30: A private Middle East peace plan dubbed the Geneva Initiative will be launched here on Monday despite outright opposition from the Israeli government and lukewarm support from the Palestinian leadership.

The bid, drafted by left-wing Israeli opposition politicians and prominent Palestinians, includes detailed proposals to resolve some of the thorniest issues in the bitter Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It is being unveiled as the internationally-backed “roadmap” for peace has been left floundering by continuing violence on the ground and Israel’s building of what it terms a “security” barrier in the occupied West Bank.

“For the first time there is a detailed plan showing what could be the outcome of negotiations,” Anis al-Qaq, the Palestinian leadership’s representative in Switzerland said.

The plan deals with all key issues in the conflict, but its de facto renunciation to the right of return of some four million Palestinian refugees has earned it staunch opposition from many Palestinian factions.

Monday’s launch ceremony in Geneva was due to be attended by 700 guests including former US president Carter, the Nobel peace laureate who helped broker the Camp David accords that led to the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.

But Israel is warning the international community and its US ally not be coaxed into supporting the blueprint, which has no official backing although it has drawn European support and encouragement from Washington.

“It should be clear that meeting with those who are going to dance around the golden calf in Geneva are making a mistake, because it is encouraging terrorists and harming the ‘roadmap’ which the international community and especially the United States have sponsored,” a high-ranking official close to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said.

The Geneva plan is also unable to boast the full endorsement of the Palestinian leadership and radical Islamic movements such as Hamas are sharply opposed.

On Sunday, about 300 militants from an umbrella group representing all Palestinian factions, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Yasser Arafat’s mainstream Fatah party blocked a Palestinian delegation heading to Geneva from the Gaza Strip.

Monday’s ceremony is being held amid a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at ending more than three years of violence which has claimed the lives of more than 3,620 people.

Sharon and his foreign minister Silvan Shalom were to hold talks with US envoy William Burns, who met with Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei on Saturday in Jordan, ahead of a possible Sharon-Qorei summit.

Egypt meanwhile was preparing to host 12 Palestinian factions to encourage them to halt attacks on Israelis and pave the way for a revival of peace negotiations.

The 50-page Geneva document details the creation of a Palestinian state encompassing 97.5 percent of the West Bank with shared sovereignty over Al Quds.

The Palestinians will waive the right of return for some 3.8 million refugees under the initiative.

Switzerland, which financed and helped out the secret talks, will act as guardian of the initiative, with Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey overseeing the signing ceremony.

The chief driving force on the Israeli side is former justice minister Yossi Beilin while the main Palestinian instigator is former information minister and Arafat confidant Yasser Abed Rabbo.—AFP