A new initiative for ending the Occupation… if you have the stamina to read about it

I have just stumbled across an important-looking report entitled 'Regaining the Initiative - Palestinian Strategic Options to End Israeli Occupation' by the Palestine Strategy Group. It is dated August 2008, but I don’t recall any fanfare to launch it.

Were we actually meant to discover it? The only mention I’ve seen was buried deep within the text of an excellent article, 'Coexistence with Occupation Not an Option' by Sam Behour, recently posted on the PalestineChronicle website.

Sam Behour is one of 45 politicians, academics, business people and others who participated in the study. He says the document "reflects an alternative to an official but impotent Palestinian discourse that will very shortly, in the judgment of most Palestinians, run head-on into a brick wall."

The report is 52 pages long, maintains that Israel's strategic calculations are wrong and sets out three strategic tasks for Palestinians if they are to bring the present sterile 'peace' negotiations to an end and re-focus efforts towards achieving the Palestinian dream.

Apparently the work was funded by the EU. But if taxpayers are to see value for their money the report must be made a lot easier to digest.

I'm passionately interested in the subject but found even the Executive Summary, which runs to 5 pages, hard going. When I tried to absorb the main body of the report I gave up in defeat.

Here's an extract: unobserver