True to their role, the sponsors of Israel in Washington and the media were quick to try to make us believe that the talks failed because the Palestinians refused to give up any concessions, as if the utterly dispossessed Palestinians have anymore to give up.

For those who have the ability to see beyond the myths propagated by the media, the Camp David summit failed because it was based on the deeply flawed premise that the fundamental, internationally recognized, unalienable right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland was negotiable.

It failed because Israel still insists that international law and U.N. resolutions on the question of Palestine and Jerusalem somehow do not apply to it. United Nations' resolution 194 adopted on Dec. 11, 1948, states that ``refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practical date. . . Compensation should be paid for property of those choosing not to return.''

This resolution is further clarified by the U.N. General Assembly Resolution 3236 which reaffirms in Subsection 2, ``the inalienable right of the of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which the have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return.''

U.N. Security Council resolution 242 emphasizes the inadmissibility of acquisitions by war and calls on Israel to withdraw from all territories it occupied during the 1967 war, including occupied East Jerusalem.

Ultimately, the Camp David summit failed because Palestinians finally ran out of things to give up and the Israelis went to Camp David pledging to give nothing. It failed because the so-called honest broker of Middle East peace is yet to recognize the Palestinians as victims, and is yet to comprehend such concepts as just peace, fairness, and moral and legal obligation to upheld international law.

For now the Camp David charade is over and the Middle East peace process continues to idle along. In the meantime, Israeli policy of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in Jerusalem continues unabated. Four million Palestinian refugees are still denied the right to go back to their homes and are living in miserable conditions in Lebanon, Jordan and elsewhere. Palestinian land continues to be stolen by Israeli occupation.

More illegal Israeli settlements are going upon stolen Palestinian land everyday. More Palestinian homes are demolished daily by the Israeli occupation and Palestinian families are made homeless. Two thousands Palestinian prisoners are still rotting in Israeli jails.

That is the total sum of the Israeli peace offerings. That is Israeli's concept of genuine and long lasting peace. Could anyone who has not totally lost his sense of humanity and justice tell me what more cold the Palestinians give up?

Real and long lasting peace in the Middle East will prevail only when Israel decides to end its occupation of all Palestinian lands, and recognize the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, which include the right of return and the right to an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Real and long lasting peace will finally arrive when Israelis decide to cope with the fact that they have a shared destiny with the Palestinian people and that their peace and security will never materialize until the rights, peace and security of the Palestinian people are realized.

Only then will a fair, long lasting, and equitable peace be achieved. Until then, the only thing that the Palestinians have left to give up is their faith in a peace process that continues to victimize them while legitimizing Israeli occupation of their land.

Amra is a board member of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination committee.

© 2000 PioneerPlanet / St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press

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