The Palestinian leadership is scheduled to hold another emergency meeting on Friday to discuss ways to respond to the continuation of the Israeli “escalation,” PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh announced on Wednesday.
The Ramallah-based leadership has held a series of meetings in the past week to discuss the latest rise of tensions and violence.
The announcement came a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meeting in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who again held Israel fully responsible for the “escalation.”
A Palestinian official expressed disappointment with the outcome of Blinken’s visit to the region, saying he did not carry any new ideas “to force Israel to halt its punitive measures against the Palestinians.
Palestinian Authority's demands
The official said the security coordination with Israel won’t be fully resumed unless Israel halts “all forms of escalation.” Last week, the Palestinian leadership announced its decision to end the security coordination in response to the killing of nine Palestinians, mostly gunmen, during an Israeli military operation in Jenin Refugee Camp.
Hassan Asfour, a former Palestinian negotiator with Israel, said the Blinken visit achieved “zero results.” In an article published in the Palestinian Amad news website, Asfour wrote that the US administration wants the Palestinian leadership to continue trusting the US.
“They want the Palestinian leadership to wait even more and not to resist the ongoing Judaization of the West Bank and Jerusalem,” he said. “They want the Palestinian leadership to refrain from provoking the Biden administration by going to international forums on the pretext that these are unilateral steps that don’t serve the two-state solution. They also want the Palestinian leadership to resume the security coordination with the party that considers it an enemy, rather than a partner.”
On Wednesday, Sheikh met in Ramallah with Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, US Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr and Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Governance and Access in the Bureau of Energy Resources, Kimberly Harrington.
The meeting was attended by PA presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh and Majdi al-Khalidi, a senior adviser to Abbas.
Sheikh said he stressed, “the need for Israel to stop all unilateral measures and to pressure the Israeli government to stop all forms of escalation.”
He said he also stressed the need for Israel to abide by the agreements signed with the PLO and “to implement international legitimacy resolutions leading to ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.”
He said he also underlined the need for Israel to abide by the agreements signed with the PLO and “to implement international legitimacy resolutions leading to ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.”
Earlier, Sheikh, who attended the meeting between Blinken and Abbas, accused the Israeli government of committing a “massacre of demolishing Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.” He called on the international community to intervene immediately to stop the “massacre.”
Sheikh was referring to the recent demolition of several houses in east Jerusalem and the West Bank that were built under permit.
He said he also raised during his meeting with the US officials Israel’s recent measures against Palestinian security prisoners. On Wednesday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ordered the closure of bakeries at Rimon and Ketziot prisons, which were operated by the prisoners to provide fresh bread to the inmates. Ben Gvir’s office stated that “the minister’s policy is to deny benefits and indulgences to terrorists imprisoned in Israel.”