The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) called Friday, June 14, on all parties who have been invited to the Bahrain workshop initiated by the United States, to refrain from attending, as this framework aims at establishing the principle of “money for peace.”

Australian graffiti artist @LushSux painted this giant mural on the Israeli security barrier where it runs through the West Bank city of Bethlehem. (Photo: Twitter)

During a consultation meeting in Ramallah, the PLO Executive Committee announced that it has not delegated any party to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people. “Therefore,” it said, “the results of this workshop are null and void and will not create a right nor will they create an obligation.”

The PLO Executive Committee also called on the Arab states to adhere to the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, as well as to the resolutions of the Dhahran Summit of 2018, the Tunis Summit of 2019 and the 2019 Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. All of these initiatives call for the creation of an independent Palestine state based on the June 4, 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The Executive Committee also said it will be attending the educational conference scheduled to take place in Tunis on July 7-8, at the same time calling upon the countries of the world to boycott the workshop in Manama, capital of Bahrain, and its output.

The Palestinian government said on Wednesday, June 12, that Arab countries said to be planning to participate in the US-sponsored meeting in the Bahraini capital scheduled to open on June 24, have still not confirmed their participation. “Contrary to what was reported yesterday, the Palestinian government was notified that Jordan, Morocco and Egypt have not announced their participation in the Bahrain workshop,” Palestinian government spokesman Ibrahim Milhim said in a statement.

In its latest meeting, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Israel (CPI) reiterated its absolute rejection of the Manama workshop being sponsored by the Trump administration. The CPI maintains that the US imperialism is attempting to undermine Palestinian aspirations for freedom, independence and statehood by focusing on capitalist interests, the theme of the Bahrain meeting, rather than on an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The position of the CPI is that the only road to peace in the region is by ending the 52-year-long Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital based on the June 4, 1967 borders, while at the same time resolving all final status issues, primarily that of Palestinian refugees, based on United Nations resolutions.