“Talk about annexing it to Israel is null and void,” said the PA minister about the Jordan Valley, according to an official PA news agency.
By World Israel News Staff
Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh vowed on Monday that his government will “pursue Israel in international courts for exploiting Palestinian land in the Jordan Valley,” reports Wafa, an official PA news agency.
“We will keep up this fight against the occupation on the ground and in various international forums,” said Shtayyeh, according to the report.
Protesting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge to extend Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, the PA government held its weekly meeting Monday in Fasayel, an Arab village located in the northern Jordan Valley area, said Wafa.
Explaining the importance of annexing the Jordan Valley, Netanyahu said on September 10 that it was the eastern border of Israel.
Together with the Golan Heights, “It is the essential security belt in the Middle East,” said the Israeli premier, adding that “it’s our eastern defensive wall. A defensive wall that ensures that we’ll never return to be a state with a width of several kilometers.”
At its weekly meeting on Sunday, the Israeli cabinet followed though on Netanyahu’s pledge by voting to establish the community of Mevo’ot Yeriho, which until now had been classified as an unauthorized settlement outpost.
Speaking at the start of the Palestinian cabinet session on Monday, Shtayyeh said that holding the meeting “in Fasayel and the Jordan Valley is to affirm its Palestinian identity,” according to the PA official news agency.
“The Jordan Valley is a major component of the Palestinian landscape,” he said, adding that the PA government would “take the decisions that support the steadfastness of our people here.”
The PA premier claimed that the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea are “part and parcel of the geography of Palestine and therefore talk about annexing it to Israel is null and void,” Wafa reported.