Palestinian official: ‘United Jerusalem’ law destroys peace process

A senior Palestinian official accused the US and Israel of collaborating “to dictate a solution and destroy the two-state principle.”

By: World Israel News Staff

A senior Palestinian official slammed the Knesset’s vote on a bill that seeks to keep Jerusalem unified, as well as a Likud party resolution declaring Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, blaming the moves on US policy.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Tuesday that these moves are the result of President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and “part of new US-Israeli collaboration to dictate a solution and destroy the two-state principle.”

Erekat, Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee, told the official Voice of Palestine radio that Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas has outlined the Palestinian strategy to “face these acts that seek to liquidate the Palestinian cause.”

Several steps are required, Erekat said, the most important of which is ending the division between the various Palestinian factions. A recent attempt at reconciliation between Abbas’ Fatah and Hamas has so far failed.

Erekat asserted that the Palestinian leadership will “defeat all these American and Israeli attempts to impose a solution” by acting to obtain full Palestinian United Nations (UN) membership, through UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and by prosecuting Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

These moves are meant to “face all these plans aimed at liquidating the Palestinian national project,” Erekat said.

Erekat accused the Trump administration of adopting the “positions of the Israeli occupation” and of deviating from positions held by previous US administrations, pointing out that this change began with a Congress vote to cut US aid to the PA over its support of terrorism, the closing of the PLO’s Washington office and then Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem, which “reshaped Palestinian-American relations.”

Erekat claimed that 36 meetings have been held with the American officials aimed at “reaching a serious peace process,” but the “Americans have breached all their commitments.”

In reaction, Abbas declared that the Trump administration is no longer part of the solution but part of the problem, said Erekat.