But places like Arura lie at the heart of the most serious quarrel yet between the Palestinians and the nearly 5-month-old government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak - one that has set off a volley of angry accusations and held up the handover of West Bank territory to the Palestinians this week.
Israel was to have turned over 5 percent of the West Bank on Monday, bringing nearly two-fifths of the territory under full or partial Palestinian control. Land handovers like this one are meant to build confidence and goodwill as the two sides hold intensive final-status talks aimed at yielding an overall peace agreement a scant 10 months from now.
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| AP PHOTO Palestinian Boy Scouts hold a huge Palestinian flag aloft in a parade to celebrate independence day in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Monday. |
They fear the result could be an archipelago state, whose territory is as scattered as footprints in the sand.
Arura was one of the areas designated by Israel for handover on Monday - an offer spurned by Arafat, who instead sought control of several densely populated suburbs of Jerusalem.
The village, located about halfway between the main West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus, is too far from either to provide any territorial contiguity. Even its own surrounding olive groves would be left out of the handover, municipal officials said.
"They want to give us islands," said Arura's dentist, Naji Barghouti, pausing yesterday on the sleepy main street. "But we have to think of the big picture."
Like others in the village of 3,000, he said he was eager to see it come under full Palestinian control - but not at the cost of areas deemed more crucial to sketching the outlines of a future state.
Israel, citing security concerns and past precedent, says it alone has the right to draw up maps for West Bank withdrawals. Under existing interim peace agreements, the Palestinians are not guaranteed a say in which lands are designated to be handed over, Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
Until now, Arafat had always accepted Israel's withdrawal plans.
But with final-status talks finally underway - meant to resolve the most difficult issues, including the borders of any Palestinian state and the status of Jerusalem - the Palestinians insist they must be consulted about any handover plans.
Two more Israeli pullbacks are scheduled before next September, when the two sides hope their final peace treaty will be concluded. As the dispute has hardened over the past few days, it has fueled Palestinian fears that Israel will strike a take-it-or-leave-it stance when it comes to the shape of their state.
"Israel is trying to create a precedent for the coming phase and for the final-status talks - that the map be ready and that the Palestinians should simply agree to it," said senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.
But Palestinians, too, are using the interim handovers as a way to stake out positions in the talks. Arafat's demand for control over the Jerusalem suburbs of Ram and Abu Dis is almost certainly intended to bolster future claims to a Palestinian foothold in the disputed city.
The Palestinians want to establish their capital in Jerusalem's traditionally Arab eastern sector; Israel says it will never relinquish sovereignty over all the city.
In congested, traffic-clogged Ram, on Jerusalem's northern edge, produce vendor Issan Abu Danhash had a ready answer when asked why the suburb should come under Palestinian control as soon as possible.
"Al-Quds," he said, using the Arabic-language term "the holy" that refers to Jerusalem. "First we have to get areas nearby, like this one."
No new date has been set for Monday's delayed pullback. U.S. mediator Dennis Ross, in separate meetings with Barak and Arafat on Tuesday, failed to bring the two sides together, but urged them to settle the dispute soon.
In Arura, municipal secretary Murshid Aqleah looked out over his view of empty stone-terraced hills, a bit discomfited by the remote village's role in the handover quarrel.
"These are very, very big questions," he said. "And this is a very, very quiet place."
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