The Palestinian Authority will not allow Israeli plans to build in the E1 area
of Jerusalem to be realized, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday, according
to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Abbas said the building plans are “a red
line and we will not allow it to happen.”
Speaking at the opening session
of the Fatah Advisory Council on “statehood and international legitimacy,” the
PA president said “we are holding contacts on all levels to stop this Israeli
project that aims to sabotage the peace process,” as quoted by
Wafa.
Abbas’s comments come a day after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
vowed to ignore the international community’s condemnation of prospective
building plans for Jerusalem across the Green Line, in an interview aired in
part on Channel 2.
“The entire world oppose settlements and say they are
illegal,” Wafa quoted Abbas as saying.
“International resolutions say
settlements are an obstacle to peace and therefore they should be stopped in
total in all the Palestinian territories, particularly in occupied Jerusalem, in
order to resume serious and real negotiations on all final status issues to
reach a comprehensive and just peace.”
He added that Palestinian leaders
were exploring a range of measures to respond to Israeli moves, and called on
the international community to press Israel to release tax revenues belonging to
the PA.