Elon Peace Plan

From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.

The Elon Peace Plan is a solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict proposed by Rabbi Binyamin Elon, who was the Israeli tourism minister at the time he put forward his proposal. Since Elon is the leader of the small ultra-right Moledet party, which is part of a coalition of parties called the National Union, this plan is considered irrelevant by the vast majority of Israelis and all Palestinians.

The plan advocates the formal annexation of West Bank and Gaza by Israel and that the now stateless Palestinians will become citizens of Jordan. In particular, Palestinians now living in the West Bank and Gaza will be transfered, an action which the Moledet party calls to be done in a voluntary manner. Those new Jordanian citizens who choose not to accept the invitation to move away, according to the Elon plan, would be welcome to remain in Israel as permanent resident foreign nationals so long as they remained peaceful and law abiding residents.

Elon and Moledet propose that the Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories be declared Jordanian citizens and then "Israel, the United States and the international community will allocate resources for the completion of the exchange of populations that began in 1948 and the full rehabilitation of the refugees and their absorption and naturalization in various countries".

Elon continues to advance his plan. See his 2004 visit to Jordan referenced below.

Debate

Advocates of the plan point to what they believe would derive from its implementation:

A permanent end to the conflict would be accomplished without further delay.
Palestinian refugees will benefit by gaining citizenship and accompanying rights in their respective future countries.
There would no longer be a threat to the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, even after expanding its borders to include the West Bank and Gaza.

For a complete overview of the advocate position, see the full text of Elon's proposal in the External links section.

Detractors of the plan claim Palestinians would not agree to be transferred, nor would Jordan agree to accept them. Hence, the plan cannot be accomplished as stated; so it is irrelevant. Some have gone as far as accusing Moledet of cynically advocating transfer by agreement while secretly harboring plans for forced transfer, pointing to a number of statements by Moledet's founder, Zeevi, in favor of forced transfer (see the Rehavam Zeevi page for details).