Abbas: E1 building is 'red line' for Palestinians

PA president tells British diplomats that Israel's E1 plan would split West Bank, prevent continuity between Palestinian areas.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah 370 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman)
PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah 370 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his opposition on Wednesday to Israel’s plan to build in the area known as E1 between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim.
Abbas said that the Palestinians considered the plan a “red line” that should not be crossed.
Abbas’s remarks came during a meeting he held in his office in Ramallah with Nigel Kim Darroch, the National Security Adviser for the British government.
The British consul-general in Jerusalem attended the meeting.
Abbas told the British diplomats that the E1 plan would divide the West Bank into two parts and prevent geographical continuity between Palestinian territories.
Abbas said that the plan would also isolate east Jerusalem from its “Palestinian surroundings.”
Reiterating his commitment to the two-state solution, Abbas said that the PA remained committed to a just and comprehensive peace with Israel.
Abbas, according to his aides, also briefed the British officials on the latest developments in the West Bank in the aftermath of the death of Arafat Jaradat, a 30-year-old Palestinian from the Hebron area, in Israeli prison last weekend.
Abbas complained that the continued imprisonment of Palestinians and settlement construction “jeopardized efforts to break the current statement in the peace process.” Meanwhile, Abbas Zaki, a senior Fatah official, called on Palestinians to take to the streets in the thousands to block highways used by settlers in the West Bank.
Zaki said that the Palestinians can no longer remain idle as “our sons are being executed in Israeli prisons.”
He said, however, that Fatah was opposed to an armed struggle against Israel at this stage because of the divisions among the Palestinians and the preoccupation of the Arab countries with the Arab Spring.
“We don’t want to be dragged to a square where Israel would be the winner,” Zaki explained.