The Palestinian leadership should focus on the UN bid for statehood as well as resuming negotiations with Israel, Hadash Chairman and Knesset Member Muhammad Barakeh said Tuesday.
Speaking at a press conference in Ramallah, Barakeh said Palestinian leaders should not adopt Israel’s agenda that negotiations were conditional on abandoning a bid for statehood at the UN in September.
Muhammad Barakeh (center) during the press conference (Photo: Ma’an)
The UN bid seeks to confirm the Palestinian state is on land occupied by Israel in 1967 – the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including East Jerusalem, the Hadash Chairman said.
He noted that the land in the West Bank, inside the 1967 borders, is occupied and not disputed territory. Barakeh said Israel wanted to negotiate with the Palestinians as if the land belonged to Israel. He added that the Palestinian leadership should be treated in the same way as leaders of other countries, despite the occupation.
Secretary General of the Palestinian Peoples Party, a communist party, Bassam Salhi, in a press conference in Ramallah Monday called to form public and democratic collation to support seeking United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders next September, and to preserve the Palestinian reconciliation within the basic Palestinian law.
Salhi called to build a united front for public resistance, to coordinate with youth groups and frameworks in the Palestinian Territory and abroad, as well as to join efforts with the international solidarity committees to end the occupation, recognize a Palestinian state and implement UN resolutions.
He considered US President Barak Obama’s speech regarding the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations to lack the requirements to resume them and to jeopardize UN resolutions on all issues, mainly the 1967 borders, Jerusalem, refugees and settlements.
Salhi stressed the importance of seeking UN recognition to support the Palestinian state within 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital next September and to end the occupation, as well as of gathering international recognition, which will enhance Palestinian efforts to seek membership in the UN.
He said that seeking UN recognition of a Palestinian state and obtaining UN supervision of the peace process, aside from the bilateral negotiations and bias US supervision, only will determine both the borders and capital issues in accordance to the international willing and UN resolutions, not to Israel’s stance.
“The Palestinians’ rights to self-determination and to establish a state are inalienable and nonnegotiable. Seeking UN recognition can’t be tied to failing negotiations,” Salhi said.
He expressed regret for not forming a national unity government and naming prime minister till the moment, which he considered a main obstacle against the reconciliation agreement. He discussed details to be incorporated in the new government, including elections, central court and treasury.
