Israel-Palestinian Territories
It was just a momentary meeting. But could a brief coming together between Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal (picture) and Israeli peace campaigner Ofer Bronstein be a small act that leads to significant action?
A fleeting handshake at the airport, a polite “salaam alaikoum”, and a pat on the back – it may only have been brief and civil, but the meeting between Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal and Israeli peace activist Ofer Bronstein could yet prove important.
Meshaal, 56, whose militant Islamist group Hamas governs the Palestinian territory of Gaza, and Bronstein, who founded the International Forum for Peace in the Middle East met in the Moroccan city of Rabat at the first conference of the country’s ruling Party of Justice and Development (PJD).
Meshaal was attending the opening of the PJD’s conference, which saw 2,000 people gather together under the theme of “good governance”.
“You should do politics in Morocco, the public loves you!” Bronstein jokingly told Meshaal during a buffet dinner. It was a comment aimed at breaking the ice and releasing any tension.
“Thank you, I’ll think about it,” Meshaal responded.
It was not the first time Bronstein had made contact with groups considered sworn enemies of Israel. A former adviser to the current Israeli President Shimon Peres during the 1990s Camp David and Oslo peace talks, Bronstein has had regular contact with Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas, who symbolically awarded him a Palestinian passport to go alongside his French and Israeli ones.
“Meshaal might have wanted me dead at some point,” said Bronstein, “but I am convinced that some day or another we will have to talk to Hamas.”
Bronstein founded his organisation in 2002 to promote reconciliation and peace between the Israeli and Palestinian Communities. Earlier this year he was forcibly removed from a Friends of Israel meeting in Paris by militants from the Jewish Defence League.
Bronstein decided to leave Tel Aviv for Paris in 2001 after he and his wife mistakenly thought their son had been among the 21 young revellers killed in an attack on the city’s famous Dolphinarium nightclub. Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing, but later retracted it. Bronstein’s son survived the attack, but by then their minds had been made up to leave the country.
So will he and Meshaal cross paths again? A possible meeting could take place in Morocco, a country that is rediscovering the contribution made by its Jewish population. Under the guidance of the moderate Islamist PJD party could Morocco one day play the part of Norway in hosting historic peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis?
The political conditions are clearly not yet in place but their chance encounter may have provided a beginning.
