Twenty years on, Switzerland is turning its back on the Geneva Initiative, which deals with the conflict in the Middle East. It believes that the international political context has changed dramatically and that a “more innovative and effective” approach is needed
The Geneva Initiative was signed in October 2003 by two former ministers, one Israeli and one Palestinian, under the impetus of Swiss academic Alexis Keller. It sought to provide – if not a definitive solution to the Middle East conflict – then at least a first step towards a global resolution.
It was “the first initiative of its kind that proposed concrete steps to resolve the Middle East conflict”, recalls Mohamed Cherif, former Geneva correspondent for SWI, who covered the event at the time.
2003 was the year when the United States invaded Iraq. It was also when the second Palestinian intifada was at its height. This uprising, in which Palestinians attacked Israeli soldiers by throwing stones at them and committed suicide attacks, broke out after the failure of the Camp David agreements in 2000. In retaliation, Israel bombed the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and the West Bank. In total, an estimated 1,000 Israelis and 3,000-5000 Palestinians have died during the violence.
Alexis Keller also remembers the optimism that greeted the initiative, the idea for which was born in Geneva in 2001 and concluded in Amman, Jordan, two-and-a-half years later. “There was an atmosphere of mutual respect and recognition between the two parties, leading to real joy and a feeling of having made history,” he told SWI.
However, 20 years after the agreement was signed, it must be acknowledged that it has had no impact on the ground: Israeli settlements are proliferating, and the two countries are locked in a simmering conflict with nearly daily casualties. Switzerland has announced that it will no longer fund the initiative after 2023.
Keller is surprised at this decision. He believes “the text still provides the most complete model for a two-state solution, especially given that the foreign ministry has not announced any concrete alternative”.