Yacimovich to Palestinians: Labor will be partner in any peace treaty

Abbas' warns if an agreement is not reached, there will be one, bi-national state within 20 years, a situation that neither side wants.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich 370 (photo credit: Artiom Degel)
Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich 370
(photo credit: Artiom Degel)
Labor will not let an opportunity for a peace treaty pass, opposition leader Shelly Yacimovich (Labor) said in a meeting with Palestinian officials on Saturday.
“Even though Labor refused to be part of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government, we will not let any chance for a diplomatic agreement leading to two states for two nations pass us by without our party leading and being a partner in it,” she said.
Yacimovich and former Labor MK and minister Ghaleb Majadele met with head of the Palestinian Committee for Interaction with Israeli Society Muhammad Madani, Prisoners Affairs Minister Ashraf Ajarmi and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s diplomatic adviser Nimar Hamad at the home of Labor member Milham Milham in Arara, in the Wadi Ara region.
According to Yacimovich, Labor’s choice to lead the opposition and not be a “fig leaf” in the Netanyahu government, while serving as a “safety net” if peace talks progress, is “a significant political point of influence, and a counterweight to pressure by right-wing MKs in the Likud and Bayit Yehudi on the prime minister to not move one millimeter forward in negotiations.”
Hamad said that “the small territory that both the Jewish and Palestinian people share has room for two states.”
Abbas’ adviser also warned that if an agreement is not reached now, there will be one, bi-national state within 20 years, a situation that neither side wants.
Ajarmi said he hopes to teach Palestinians that mistakes of the past are not destined to be repeated and that two states is the only solution.