Summary
The five-member fact-finding committee announced at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit of 17 October 2000 and appointed by the U.S. President on 7 November 2000 to determine what happened in the violence that began in late September 2000 and how to prevent its recurrence, expressly not as a tribunal determining guilt or innocence; its report to President George W. Bush is dated 30 April 2001 (Report of the Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee, lines 104-126).
Details
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The summit statement the report quotes provided that the United States would develop the committee with the Israelis and Palestinians, in consultation with the UN Secretary General, and that its report would be shared by the U.S. President with the Secretary General and the parties before publication (lines 104-110).
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The President’s letter of 6 December 2000, as the report quotes it, set the purpose as ending the violence, preventing its recurrence and finding a path back to the peace process, and directed that the Committee not become a focal point for blame and recrimination (lines 110-112).
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The members were George J. Mitchell (Chairman), Suleyman Demirel, Thorbjoern Jagland, Warren B. Rudman and Javier Solana; the report states that its conclusions and recommendations are theirs alone, though information and advice came from a wide range of individuals, organizations and governments (lines 44-60).
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The Committee had no power to compel testimony or the production of documents, and most information it received came from the parties (lines 144-148).
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Its findings and recommendations are set out on its report’s page: no persuasive evidence of a deliberate PA plan to initiate violence or a deliberate GOI plan to respond with lethal force, and recommendations headed by an unconditional cessation of violence, resumed security cooperation, a settlement freeze and resumed negotiations (lines 168-174, 334-408).
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The Tenet Plan of 13 June 2001 states that the GOI and PA security organizations reaffirm their commitment to the security agreements forged at Sharm el-Sheikh in October 2000, embedded in the Mitchell Report of April 2001, the report of this Committee (The Tenet Plan: Israeli-Palestinian Ceasefire and Security Plan, lines 29-31).
Related pages
Report of the Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee, George J. Mitchell, Second Intifada, Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum, The Tenet Plan: Israeli-Palestinian Ceasefire and Security Plan