Sensing the despair in Palestinian public opinion, pragmatic officials in the PLO are contemplating a new interim policy move for 2017 to prevent an armed intifada and to keep alive the national Palestinian positions on permanent status. The idea is to launch a Palestinian initiative for a three-year interim agreement that would lead to permanent status.

A senior PLO official who participated in the Oslo Accord and other peace negotiations told Al-Monitor that the Palestinian leadership is fully aware of what a challenge it will be to achieve immediate statehood based on the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as the capital, especially with the expected change in US positions by the Donald Trump administration.

The official noted that within the Fatah movement there are those who believe the only way to place Palestinian statehood on the international agenda is a third intifada and violent resistance to the occupation. The more pragmatic group, he stated, believes in working with the Arab League (especially Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia) on a diplomatic track, focusing on the new UN Security Council Resolution 2334. Pursuing the latter position, the PLO official, together with other known peace process diplomats, have developed a plan for an interim agreement, which they have already discussed with Israeli peace nongovernmental organizations.

The proposal includes six central elements. The first is establishing a one-year time frame, ending in December 2017, for declaring a Palestinian state on transitional borders. A second element relates to the interim territory of the new state, which will include all of Area A (currently under Palestinian control) and Area B (under Palestinian civil control and joint Israeli-Palestinian security control) and 20% of Area C (under Israeli control) in the Jordan Valley with full Palestinian sovereignty. This means an Israeli withdrawal from parts of Area C and the transfer of security control to Palestinians in Area B. Then there is the issue of Israeli settlements in Area C. The settlers could stay, but under Palestinian sovereignty. A fourth and most important element is a complete Israeli freeze of settlement expansion, based on the 1968 UN General Assembly Resolution 2443. Also, Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation shall be increased. The sixth element concerns permanent status negotiations, which must be launched after December 2017 between Israel and Palestine. The negotiations, on the basis of the 1967 lines and the Arab Peace Initiative, should last no more than a year, with a one-year implementation time frame.