A Hadash-CPI delegation meets with Abu Mazen in Ramallah

 A joint Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality)  and Communist Party of Israel (CPI) delegation meets, Friday June 10, with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) in Ramallah. Palestinian leader Abbas stressed in the meeting the centrality of the 1967 borders in both continued efforts toward peace talks and a simultaneous move to garner UN support.

“Settlement construction must end and a two-state solution must be based on the 1967 borders”, Abbas insisted during the meeting. “The PLO is working to gain UN membership for a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital” he said, adding that no part of that declaration was in conflict with peace talks based on a two state solution.

In a series of May speeches, US President Barack Obama asserted that talks would have to take place with the pre-1967 borders as the basic starting point, a position that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu later rejected in a speech in front of the US Congress in Washington. But according to Abbas, President Obama opposes the recognition of Palestine in the United Nations. “A big mistake” agreed Abu Mazen. 

Netanyahu also refused to halt settlement construction on lands occupied by Israel, which Palestinian negotiators say is an act of bad faith for a two-state solution.

“Accepting Palestine as a member in the United Nations within the 1967 borders is a guarantee for the two-state solution”, said Abbas. He called the international community, the world peace movement and the public opinion in Israel to restore the peace process by making Israel commit to the two-state solution, stop settlement expansion and support Palestine’s full membership in the United Nations.

 

In the Hadash-CPI delegation participated: MK Muhammad Barakeh (Hadash chairman); the Nazareth mayor, Ramez Jaraisy; the Arabeh mayor, Omar Nasser; a member of the CPI Central Committee’s Political Bureau, Jamil Abu-Rass; Hadash secretary Ayman Odeh; a member of the CPI Central Committee, Dr. Ofer Cassif and two members of the Hadash executive secretariat: Dr. Zoher Tibi and Dr. Shehadi Ibn-Bari.