In new departures from crisis-stricken negotiating framework, PLO also now rejects any West Bank land swaps with Israel
By AFP and Elhanan Miller
April 28, 2014 “ICH” – “TOI” – In a further departure from the crisis-stricken Israeli-Palestinian negotiating framework, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s central council on Sunday adopted a plan to pursue attempts to join 60 United Nations bodies and international agreements.
The council, under the auspices of President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, “affirms the need for the Palestinian leadership to continue membership of UN agencies and international conventions, under the Palestinian plan that was adopted,” the Palestine People’s Party secretary general Bassam al-Salhi said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the central council decided to establish “the legal center for the state of Palestine,” tasked with advising the
central council and the PLO’s executive committee, according to the official WAFA news agency.
Reasserting Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, the central council broke from previous Palestinian negotiating positions, demanding “a complete end to the occupation of the Palestinian state, the illegitimacy of settlements in all their forms, and a refusal of land swaps.”
Speaking to Israeli journalists last week, Abbas had said Palestinians would agree to “limited land swaps,” the extent of which he did not specify.
The council also decided to turn to the UN Security Council or convene an international peace conference “leading to the implementation of UN resolutions.”
Last month Abbas applied for membership in 15 international bodies and treaties, which Israel said breached a commitment agreed to before peace talks. The move came after Israel nixed a planned prisoner release.
Joining international bodies is seen as a significant unilateral diplomatic step towards Palestinian statehood, and a departure from the US-brokered Israeli-Palestinian negotiating framework. That negotiated process has collapsed in recent days, since Abbas’s Fatah on Wednesday signed a unity pact with rival Hamas, and Israel suspended all talks a day later, saying it would not negotiate with a Palestinian leadership supported by the Islamist terror group.
A nine-month negotiating period brokered by the US is due to end on Tuesday, and US President Barack Obama said at the weekend that a “pause” in US efforts might now be necessitated.
Elhanan Miller is the Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel
© 2014 The Times of Israel
See also-
Abbas denounces murder of Jews in Holocaust as ‘most heinous crime in modern era’: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas released a special message on Sunday in Arabic and in English on the occasion of Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, in which he decried the murder of Jews in the Holocaust as “the most heinous crime against humanity in modern history.
Israel PM dismisses Abbas Holocaust remarks: Netanyahu dismisses President Mahmoud Abbas’ remarks mourning victims of the Holocaust as PR stunt aimed at placating international community.
Bennett: Israel should annex 60 percent of West Bank: Bayit Yehudi Chairman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said on Sunday that Israel should annex the 60 percent of the West Bank that is under full Israeli control, and that includes all of the Jewish settlments built since acquiring the areas in the 1967 war.
Go To Israel, The Blacks Are Just Treated Like Dogs.”: By now just about everyone’s heard TMZ‘s nine minute recording of LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling (Born “Donald Tokowitz”) berating his then-girlfriend V. Stiviano for the heinous crime of appearing on Instagram with black people.
Longer version of alleged Sterling rant emerges amid widespread outrage: In the new 15-minute version, the man covers a variety of topics, including Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp, Israel and the Holocaust.
Counter Information 