PALESTINIAN RECONSIDER RECOGNITION OF ISRAEL: PLO CENTRAL COUNCIL
The Palestine
Liberation Organisation's (PLO) Central Council, the second-highest Palestinian
decision-making body, has recommended revoking recognition of Israel until the
latter recognises the State of Palestine in its 1967 borders, with East
Jerusalem as its capital.
During a meeting in
the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah late on Monday, the PLO, which is an
umbrella of major Palestinian political parties, said it "assigned"
its Executive Committee "to suspend recognition of Israel until it
recognizes the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders and revokes the decision
to annex East Jerusalem and expand and build settlements," according to
Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency.
In a final statement
read after the meeting, the PLO also said that the Oslo Accords, signed with Israel
in the early 1990s, "no longer stand".
It added that it
would renew its decision to "stop security coordination [with Israel] in
all its forms" and called on all Arab states "to sever all ties with
any state that recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and transfers its
embassy to it".
But several
Palestinian political parties expressed their reservations on the final
statement, saying the language was vague.
Omar Shehadeh, a
leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) party, said
there was no clear decision to end the Oslo Accords, withdraw recognition of
Israel and stop security coordination. He added that assigning the PLO's
Executive Committee to take such actions could take some time.
The meeting comes
following a decision in December by US President Donald Trump to recognise
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem.
Breaking with
decades of US policy that favoured a two-state solution, Trump's declaration
dealt a blow to the Palestinian leadership, which for more than two decades has
unsuccessfully attempted to establish a state on the West Bank, Gaza Strip and
East Jerusalem.
The PLO meeting in
Ramallah was organised to lay out the Palestinian strategy to confront the US
in the wake of its Jerusalem decision.
At the start of the
two-day meeting, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas slammed Trump's peace
proposal, saying: "Now we say 'No' to Trump, we won't accept his plan - we
say the 'deal of the century' is the slap of the century," referring to
the US president's pledge to achieve the "ultimate deal".
In the final
statement, the PLO said it would find "other international pathways under
the auspices of the United Nations to sponsor solving the Palestinian cause".
After officially
recognising Israel's existence in 1988, the PLO and Israel signed the Oslo
Accords in 1993 and 1995 meant to lead to the creation of an independent
Palestinian state through the establishment of an interim Palestinian
government - the Palestinian Authority.
The Oslo deals also
gifted Israel complete control of the Palestinian economy, civil and security
matters in over 60 percent of the West Bank, and introduced the controversial
security coordination between Israel and the PA.
The PA says the only
answer to more than 70-year-old conflict is the establishment of a Palestinian
state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
But since the
signing of the Oslo Accords, the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian
territories has only intensified, making it difficult for Palestinians to
envision such a solution.
Currently, between
600,000 to 750,000 Israeli citizens - or 11 percent of the Israeli population -
live in the occupied Palestinian territories - encouraged by the right-wing
Israeli government which offers them incentives to move there.
Guarded by heavily
armed Israeli soldiers, they have taken up large swaths of Palestinian private
land.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
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