The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday reiterated its opposition to any interim
agreement with Israel that would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian
state with temporary borders.
The PA’s announcement came
in response to
reports that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was considering seeking a
long-term interim peace deal with the Palestinians that would include the
establishment of such a state.
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Editor's Notes: A mass expression of outrage against injusticeNimer Hammad, political advisor to PA
President Mahmoud Abbas, said that the Palestinians were strongly opposed to the
idea of a state with temporary borders.
He claimed that the talk about an
interim deal was designed to help Israel “break the isolation imposed on it by
many European countries, which are demanding an end to occupation and settlement
construction.”
Hammad called on Israel to stop building in the
settlements and enter “real negotiations” with the Palestinians over
final-status issues.
PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo, who serves
as a close adviser to Abbas, said that the Palestinians would not sign any
interim or partial agreement with Israel.
He said that any agreement with
Israel must include international guarantees that it would be fully implemented
according to an agreed timetable.
Abed Rabbo added that the conflict with
Israel would not end before all agreements on the final-status issues are
implemented.
“Our top priority is to end the occupation of our lands and
a withdrawal to the 1967 borders, including east Jerusalem, and a just solution
to the case of the Palestinian refugees on the basis of the Arab peace
initiative [of 2001],” he said.
The Palestinians are also not worried
about the possibility that Israel might unilaterally withdraw from parts of the
West Bank without coordinating the move with them, Abed Rabbo
said.
Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction also voiced its opposition to the idea
of a Palestinian state with temporary borders and called for a full Israeli
withdrawal to the 1967 lines.
“Israel’s failure to abide by international
resolutions proves that the current Israeli government is not ready for peace on
the basis of a twostate solution,” said Osama Kawasmeh, a Fatah spokesman in the
West Bank.
“There will be no agreement with Israel unless it includes the
establishment of a sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with east
Jerusalem as its capital.”