PA on Congress speech: PM's policies won't bring peace

Ramallah rejects PM’s call to cancel unity with Hamas; Erekat: Netanyahu is not a man of peace, didn't say anything new.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
erekat raise the roof REUTERS 311 (photo credit: REUTERS)
erekat raise the roof REUTERS 311
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress and said that his policies won’t lead to peace.
The PA also rejected Netanyahu’s call to cancel the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas.
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Nabil Abu Rudaineh, spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, said the PA won’t agree to any Israeli presence in a Palestinian state.
Abu Rudaineh was referring to Netanyahu’s statement that Israel must maintain control over the Jordan Valley.
“We won’t accept any Israeli presence in the Palestinian state, especially along the Jordan River,” Abu Rudaineh said.
“What Netanyahu proposed in his speech won’t lead to peace, but would instead place more obstacles in front of the peace process.”
Abu Rudaineh said that for the Palestinians, peace means the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines with east Jerusalem as its capital.
“Peace must be achieved on the basis of international legitimacy and negotiations and not on the basis of preconditions and obstacles to peace,” he added.
PLO and Fatah official Saeb Erekat said Netanyahu’s speech proved to Palestinians and Arabs that they don’t have a peace partner in Israel.
He also rejected Netanyahu’s call to scrap the reconciliation agreement with Hamas. The PA won’t abandon the accord in any way, “because peace is based on reconciliation,” Erekat said.
Netanyahu is “not a man of peace and did not bring anything new.”
He also accused Netanyahu of “mixing history with geography” in his speech.
The head of the Arab League said Netanyahu’s comments on what is necessary for peace with the Palestinians “are unworkable and do not allow for peace.”
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa made the remarks on his Twitter account, saying that “when Netanyahu says Jerusalem will remain Israeli and will never be given to the Palestinians I say that there will never be peace.”
Bloomberg contributed to this report.