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Feeling heat, PA offers counter-plan – demilitarized state

After years of stonewalling on the peace process and threatened by Israel’s intention to annex settlements, the Palestinian Authority finally offers a counter-proposal to the Trump peace deal.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh revealed Tuesday that after years of rejecting a myriad of peace proposals, the Palestinian Authority had finally submitted its own concept for peace to the international community.

“We submitted a counter-proposal to the Quartet a few days ago,” Shtayyeh said at a press conference in Ramallah, referring to the foursome of the UN, EU, United States and Russia that was established in 2002 to mediate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Shtayyeh said the Palestinian peace proposal will see a “sovereign Palestinian state, independent and demilitarized” that will accept “minor modifications of borders where necessary.”

The Palestinians refused for the past several years to return to the negotiating table and the Quartet last met in 2018, after the Palestinians had cut off most contact with the Quartet in 2016 over a report it published that slammed the Palestinians for inciting violence against Israel.

With the peace process dead in the water, Shtayyeh and the PA are facing an impending Israeli move in July to apply Israeli sovereignty on settlements in Judea and Samaria, which includes an implicit American approval for the annexation.

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The Palestinians rejected President Trump’s peace plan that was announced in January. That plan was accepted by Israel even though it calls for an independent Palestinian state, something that many right-wing Israelis appear to accept in return for the Trump administration’s approval of Israeli annexation Israel of some areas of the Jordan Valley, Judea and Samaria.

Over the years the Palestinians had rejected repeated calls for them to present an alternative peace proposal, and with a paper finally on the table, Shtayyeh said the Palestinians were trying to ratchet up the heat on Israel.

“We want Israel to feel international pressure,” Shtayyeh said, adding the PA had been pushing European countries to put sanctions on Israel over the annexation.