Palestinians must “keep the ground aflame with popular resistance” against Israel, Abbas stated.

By: World Israel News Staff

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that “popular resistance” should be the only means of struggle towards independence and statehood.

“Popular resistance” usually indicates the use of rocks and firebombs against Israelis rather than more advanced weapons, such as guns.

Speaking during the closing session of the 29th meeting of the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) held on Friday in Ramallah, Abbas said that the Palestinians “should not underestimate it [popular resistance]” and must “keep the ground aflame with popular resistance” against Israel.

He called for further visits to the illegally built Beduin village of Khan al-Ahmar, east of Jerusalem, which is facing a court-ordered demolition by Israel.

“Everyone, officials and the public, should be going to Khan al-Ahmar. Our goal now must be to stay there and not allow them [the Israelis] to set up their project, because we know that they will tear apart the West Bank if they take over that area. This is a critical issue that we must keep in mind,” he stated, according to the official Palestinian WAFA news agency.

The location of the illegal structures is hazardous due to its proximity to a major highway. Khan al Ahmar is adjacent and overlooking the highway that connects Jerusalem to the south of Israel in a strategic area that bisects the country.

The residents, the Jahalin Bedouin, are an offshoot of a larger tribe based in southern Israel in the Arad region. After a blood feud broke out within the tribe, some of the families were forced out and migrated north through the Judean desert, arriving and settling in their present location after the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Their battle for the land is part of a PA and European Union-orchestrated program of creating strategically located outposts that undermine the basis of the Oslo Accords.

By creating “placeholder” encampments in strategic points throughout Area C of Judea and Samaria, the PA has circumvented the process of negotiation.

The PCC, the second-highest authority after the Palestinian National Council (PNC), affirmed on Friday its strong rejection of President Donald Trump’s yet unveiled “Deal of the Century” peace plan “in any shape or form,” stressing that it will fight it “with all available means.”

It also announced that it considered the Trump administration a “partner to the Israeli occupation government and part of the problem rather than the solution.”

The PCC stressed “the continuation of the severing of political relations with the US administration until it retracts its illegal decisions on Jerusalem, refugees and settlements.”

The Palestinians have frozen all ties with Washington since President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The PCC approved the recommendations submitted by the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to implement the decisions of the National Council and to submit a “comprehensive plan with specific timetables for redefining political, economic and security relations with the Israeli Occupying Power.”

The plan includes the suspension of recognition of the State of Israel until it recognizes the “State of Palestine on the June 1967 borders, with its capital in East Jerusalem”; the cessation of security coordination with Israel; cessation of the Paris Protocols, which dictate the economic relations with Israel, and identifying the pillars and steps to start the process of transition from the current phase of “authority” to the independence of the sovereign state of Palestine.

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The Palestinians have decided to cut off all ties with Israel and reject recognition of the Jewish state. Where will this lead them?

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

The Palestinians have announced an escalation of their diplomatic actions against Israel through the annulment of the Oslo peace accords and withdrawal of their recognition of Israel.

The Palestinian Central Council (PCC) on Monday declared that the transitional period stipulated in the peace agreements signed in 1993  in Oslo, Cairo and Washington, and its obligations “no longer stand.”

The PCC held a two-day conference this week to discuss the ramifications of the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and new Palestinian strategy.

In its final statement, the PCC, a decision-making body, called on the international community to shoulder its responsibilities on the basis of the relevant United Nations (UN) resolutions in order “to end the Israeli occupation and enable the State of Palestine to achieve its independence and to exercise its full sovereignty over its territory, including in East Jerusalem as its capital and on the borders of June 4, 1967.”

The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was assigned to revoke recognition of Israel until it “recognizes the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders” and reverses the decision to “annex East Jerusalem and expand settlements.”

The PCC also renewed its decision to stop security coordination with the IDF in all its forms. The PCC made a similar announcement three years ago, but that resolution was never acted upon.

Suspending security coordination with the IDF could endanger the Palestinian regime, which relies on the IDF to maintain security and fend off attempts by rival Palestinian factions to overthrow it.

The PCC also demanded that the Palestinian Authority (PA) end its economic dependence on Israel as stipulated in the Paris Economic Agreement (PEA) in order to “achieve the independence of the national economy.”

Under the PEA, a mechanism was set up through which Israel collects taxes—value-added tax and customs fees—on behalf of the PA to the tune of an about $100 million per month. Israel then transfers the money to the PA.

The PCC further affirmed its “rejection and condemnation of the Israeli apartheid, which Israel is trying to enforce as an alternative to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.”

Incitement to terror

In conclusion, the PCC essentially called for terrorism against Israel when it affirmed “the determination of the Palestinian people to resist by all means possible to bring the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime down” and rejected any suggestions for interim solutions including a state with temporary borders as well as the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

These resolutions were voted on, with a vast majority of 72 PCC members supporting the motions, two voting against and 12 abstaining.

While these statements are inflammatory and combative, it is unclear how they will translate into action and affect the day-to-day life of the average Palestinian.

On the first day of the conference, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas  delivered a hate-filled speech in which he denied Israel’s right to exist and wished President Donald Trump that his “house should be destroyed.”

Abbas on Sunday rejected Israel as a Western “colonial project that has nothing to do with Judaism.”

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