The Arab Peace Initiative (; ), also known as the Saudi Initiative (; ), is a 10 sentence proposal for an end to the Arab–Israeli conflict that was endorsed by the Arab League in 2002 at the Beirut Summit and re-endorsed at the 2007 and at the 2017 Arab League summits. The initiative offers normalisation of relations by the Arab world with Israel, in return for a full withdrawal by Israel from the occupied territories (including the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and Lebanon), a "just settlement" of the Palestinian refugee problem based on UN Resolution 194, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Initiative was initially overshadowed by the Passover massacre, a major Palestinian attack that took place on 27 March 2002, the day before the Initiative was published.
The Palestinian Authority led by Yasser Arafat immediately embraced the initiative. His successor Mahmoud Abbas also supported the plan and officially asked U.S. President Barack Obama to adopt it as part of his Middle East policy. Islamist political party Hamas, the elected government of the Gaza Strip, was deeply divided, with most factions rejecting the plan. The Israeli government under Ariel Sharon rejected the initiative as a "non-starter" because it required Israel to withdraw to pre-June 1967 borders. In 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed tentative support for the Initiative, but in 2018, he rejected it as a basis for future negotiations with the Palestinians.
The plan
Prelude to the 2002 Beirut summit
The Arab League summit held after the Six-Day War, during which Israel occupied large swathes of Arab territory, established the Khartoum Resolution on September 1, 1967. It contained the "three noes" that was to be the center of all Israeli-Arab relations after that point: No peace deals, no diplomatic recognitions, and no negotiations. UN Security Council Resolution 242, which called for normalization of Israel with the Arab states and for Israel to withdraw from territories taken during the war, was enacted on November 22, 1967, and faced initial rejection by most of the Arab world. The peace initiative marked a major shift from the 1967 position.
Like most peace plans since 1967, it was based on UN Security Council Resolution 242. It followed the July 2000 Middle East Peace Summit at Camp David which ended in failure and the al-Aqsa Intifada beginning in September 2000. In fall 2002, the Bush administration strenuously tried to push a temporary cease-fire in the intifada to give breathing room for the Beirut summit but failed to achieve an agreement. However, the presence of American negotiator Anthony Zinni in Israel led to a lull in the conflict for the two weeks before the summit. During this period, the Bush administration hoped to draw attention away from the Iraq disarmament crisis that would later escalate into the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Some reporters were skeptical about the summit's prospects. Robert Fisk explained the absence of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah: "they can smell a dead rat from quite a long way away." On March 14, analyst Shai Feldman stated on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer that "[t]here's little hope that negotiations will pick up or that negotiations will eventually succeed in bringing about a negotiated outcome between the two sides." However, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Thomas Friedman met Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in February 2002 and encouraged him to make the peace proposal.
2002 summit
The declaration
Only ten of the twenty-two leaders invited to the March 27 Arab League summit in Beirut, Lebanon attended. The missing included Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and King Abdullah of Jordan. Ariel Sharon's government, despite American and European pressure, had told Arafat that he would not be allowed to return if he left for the summit. The lack of participation led Australian Broadcasting Corporation reporter Tim Palmer to label the summit "emasculated".
The Arab League members unanimously endorsed the peace initiative on March 27. It consists of a comprehensive proposal to end the entire Arab–Israeli conflict. It provides in a relevant part:
Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia made a speech to the Arab League on the day of its adoption saying that:
The initiative refers to United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194, which emphasizes the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel. In a compromise wording, it states that the League supports any negotiated settlement between Israel and Palestinians and does not mention the term "right of return".