Palestinians hail Putin's 'historic' visit to Bethlehem

PLO groups slam world leaders attending Holocaust ceremony in Jerusalem.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an interview with Al Arabiya, Sky News Arabia and RT Arabic ahead of his visit to Saudi Arabia, in Sochi, Russia, in this undated picture released on October 13, 2019 (photo credit: SPUTNIK/MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/KREMLIN VIA REUTERS)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an interview with Al Arabiya, Sky News Arabia and RT Arabic ahead of his visit to Saudi Arabia, in Sochi, Russia, in this undated picture released on October 13, 2019
(photo credit: SPUTNIK/MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/KREMLIN VIA REUTERS)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Bethlehem on Thursday, PA officials confirmed, praising the visit as “historic” and a “sign of support for the Palestinian people.”
Putin is among dozens of world leaders scheduled to visit Jerusalem this week to participate in the Fifth World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem.
Two PLO groups, meanwhile, criticized the world leaders who are participating in the ceremony, which marks the 75th anniversary of the Red Army’s liberation of Auschwitz.
Britain’s Prince Charles and French President Emmanuel Macron are also expected to meet with Abbas later this week, the officials said.
On the eve of the meetings, the PA security forces beefed up their presence in Bethlehem and banned the parking of vehicles on the streets where the motorcades of Putin, Prince Charles and Macron are scheduled to pass.
PA Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said that Abbas and Putin will discuss the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, elections for the Palestinian presidency and parliament, and the crises in Syria and Lebanon.
“President Abbas is a friend of Putin,” Shtayyeh told the Russian news agency Sputnik. “Politically, we agree on the need to end the occupation and establish an independent Palestinian state in the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital. They will talk about this issue and the developments in the Middle East after the Israeli elections in March.”
Shtayyeh pointed out that the discussions will also focus on the situation in Lebanon and Syria, and said that this is an important issue for the Palestinians because of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees living in the two countries.
Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction praised Putin’s upcoming “historic” visit to Bethlehem as “another achievement for the Palestinian Authority and President Abbas, who enjoys huge respect of most international parties.”
The PA ambassador to Russia, Abdel Hafiz Nofal, said that Putin’s visit to Bethlehem is a “message of support for the Palestinian leadership.” Russia is “playing a political and central role in the region, particularly in light of the US administration’s unilateral measures against the Palestinians,” he remarked.
The ambassador said that Abbas will inform Putin that the US can no longer play a role in the Middle East peace process.
The PLO’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said that the participation of dozens of world leaders in the Holocaust remembrance ceremony in Jerusalem “affirms the hypocrisy” of the world leaders.
The PFLP, in a statement published on Tuesday, accused Israel of “exploiting the Holocaust and its victims to cover up its crimes.”
“Why are the Arabs and Palestinians paying the price of the crime perpetrated by racist European powers?” the statement said.
Another PLO group, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), said in a separate statement that Israel has “turned the occupied Palestinian territories, especially the Gaza Strip, into more than Auschwitz,” reference to the concentration camp operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust.