The Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel will cease to exist the day after
the UN votes in favor of upgrading the status of a Palestinian state to
non-member, Abbas Zaki, member of the Fatah Central Committee, was quoted
Thursday as saying.
Zaki's remarks came as Palestinian Authority
officials said that the PA President Mahmoud
Abbas was considering asking for a
UN vote on November 15 or 29.
November 15 marks the anniversary of the
declaration of a Palestinian state in Algeria in 1988. November 29 marks
"International Day for Solidarity with the Palestinians." Zaki's threats came as
several Palestinian officials warned Israel against imposing sanctions on the PA
in response to the statehood bid.
Zaki said that once the status of a
Palestinian state is upgraded, the Palestinians would be able to pursue Israel
for "war crimes" in the International Criminal Court.
"Once we become a
recognized state, we will go to all UN agencies to force the international
community to take legal action against Israel," Zaki told the London-based
Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper.
He said that after the UN votes in favor of
the PA request, "the case of the Oslo Accords and the Palestinian Authority will
be closed. We will have a state parliament and not a Palestinian Legislative
Council." Zaki denied that some Arab countries have been exerting pressure on
the PA leadership to refrain from the statehood bid.
"Until this moment, no one
has dared to ask us not to go to the UN," he stressed. "We have no other choice.
Some European countries, like Britain, have only asked us to delay the statehood
bid for three months. But we are determined to go to the UN General Assembly
this month."
Saleh Ra'fat, member of the PLO Executive Committee, warned that
the PA leadership would abrogate economic and security agreements with Israel if
the Israeli government imposed sanctions on the Palestinians in response to the
statehood bid.
"The Palestinian leadership will respond if the Israeli
government carries out its threats against the Palestinian Authority," Ra'fat
told the Jerusalem-based Al-Quds daily.
He said that the PA would
consider itself free of all its commitments under the agreements signed with
Israel, including economic and security obligations.
Ra'fat said that if
Israel decides to withhold tax revenues belonging to the PA, the Palestinians
will in response call for boycotting all Israeli goods.
He also
threatened to "escalate popular resistance against Israel."
The PLO
official said that the PA was planning to call for international conference for
peace in Moscow after the UN vote.
Jamal Muhassen, member of the Fatah
Central Committee, declared that the PA leadership was determined to go to the
UN this month despite Israeli and American "threats."
He said that the
"situation on the ground would change" after the UN vote because "the
Palestinian state will be under occupation."
Another PLO official, Tayseer
Khaled, said that the Palestinian would cancel the Paris Economic Protocol if
the Israeli government imposed financial sanctions on the PA after the UN vote.
"We will stop importing everything that is Israeli," Khaled cautioned. "We will
not remain idle if Israel robs Palestinian money."