Refusenik: Sharansky’s Dissent At The Undoing of the Jewish State

(Washington, D.C.): On the eve of tomorrow’s meeting between Bill Clinton and Ehud
Barak in
Berlin, a pivotal member of Israel’s shaky coalition government — Israel B’Aliyah chairman and
Minister of the Interior Natan Sharansky — warned his Prime Minister against concessions
Barak has offered to secure peace agreements with the Palestinians. While Barak’s office insists
for public consumption that reports of such concessions are erroneous, Minister Sharansky, a
man whose reputation for integrity and commitment to principle was forged in the crucible of the
Soviet gulag where he toiled for many years as a political prisoner, insists that they are
accurate.

Whether these concessions have already been made or are still to be offered, it seems
clear that
Mr. Barak is so determined to obtain peace accords with Israel’s enemies that there is virtually
nothing that is not expendable. Unfortunately, President Clinton is similarly disposed — and
evidently is equally prepared to make whatever promises of financial assistance, material
support and even the deployment of U.S. “monitors” or “peacekeepers” to the Golan Heights if
needed to provide political cover for Barak’s ill-advised surrender of Israeli-controlled territory
and compromise of the security of the Jewish State.

Worst of all, perhaps, is that neither the Israeli Prime Minister nor the U.S. President
are
disposed to engage in the process of genuine consultation and prior legislative approval that
such risky actions require of democratic governments. As a result, the upshot of tomorrow’s
meeting may be actions that will imperil the Jewish State and jeopardize the critically important
“special relationship” it has enjoyed — and must continue to have — with the United States.

Letter from Natan Sharansky to

Prime Minister Ehud Barak

30 May 2000

Minister of the Interior
Jerusalem

30 May 2000

Mr. Ehud Barak
Prime Minister and Minister of Defense
Jerusalem

Mr. Prime Minister,

In the last few days disturbing news has reached me regarding agreements, that you made or
were made in your name, within the framework of the negotiations with representatives of the
Palestinian Authority, in the current round of negotiations.

It pains me that you do not tend to share the developments in the negotiations with the
members
of the government or at least the members of the security cabinet and the heads of the parties that
are coalition partners. So I am forced to learn about these developments from personal friends.

From my sources I learn the following things:

A. Jerusalem

1. Israel is willing for Arab neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem to be under the municipal
responsibility of the Palestinian Authority.

2. Israel relinquishes the physical separation between Jerusalem and the territories under
Palestinian control and thus allows the free and unsupervised entrance of people into Jerusalem.

3. Israel relinquishes the setting of the final status of Jerusalem within the framework of this
agreement.

B. Judea and Samaria

1. Israel retains only 5-8% of the territory of dense settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria.

2. The Palestinian Authority demands, in return for these areas, compensation in Israeli
territory
within the borders of the “Green Line”.

3. Israel relinquishes the Jordan Valley and Northern Dead Sea.

4. Israel will uproot the settlements that according to the agreement will remain within the
territory of the Palestinian Authority.

5. Israel will resettle between 40,000 and 50,000 settlers, who will be uprooted from those
settlements.

C. Border and border passages

1. Israel relinquishes the border with Jordan that runs from the north of the [Jordan] Valley
until
the northern Dead Sea, including the control of border passages.

2. Israel will allow a border between the Palestinian Authority and Egypt in the south-west
part
of the state.

D. Refugees

1. According to the agreement, the Palestinian Authority can bring into its borders and give
citizenship to any person wishing to. This agreement opens the door for the entrance of millions
of people to the territory of the Authority.

2. In this agreement it is not established that there is no “right of return” to Israeli territory
within
the borders of the “Green Line” for Palestinians who claim that they or their relatives lived in the
past in settlements within the borders of the “Green Line”.

3. The “right of return” will be given to refugees to within the borders of the “Green Line”
within
the framework of “family reunification”.

From the agreement being developed a dangerous reality is being created according to which
Israel relinquishes, in advance, all of its assets without insisting on the setting of the final status
of Jerusalem, the refugees and the borders.

Honorable Prime Minister, just as the struggle for the independence of Israel, that reached its
peak in the Six Day Way, strengthened the people of Israel and deepened the feeling of its
identification with its State, so, to my sorrow, the developing agreement, instead of increasing
these feelings, will challenge the standing of Israel and turn it into a state that relies on the
benevolence of the nations of the world. There is no doubt that this change will effect the
standing of the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora, weaken the people, and reduce their
ability to identify with the State.

This is a dangerous process and I believe that the overwhelming majority of the Jewish
people
living in Zion and outside of it cannot agree to it.

In light of this, I ask for an urgent meeting of the security cabinet to consider the matter.
Likewise, I ask to raise the matter at the next cabinet meeting.

Regards,

Natan Sharansky

Copy:
Minister David Levy, Foreign Minister
Minister Eli Yishai, Chairman Shas Movement
Minister Yosef Sarid, Chairman Meretz Party
Minister Yitzchak Levy, Chairman NRP
Minister Amnon Lipkin Shahak, Center Party
MK Dan Merridor, Chairman Foreign and Security Committee