361
Itongadol.- The PLO leadership on Sunday launched a scathing attack on Israel and threatened to go to international agencies to punish it for its “war crimes, anti-human racist acts and violations of international laws.”
The attack came during a meeting in Ramallah of the PLO Executive Committee under the chairmanship of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The PLO leaders said they would not accept a situation where the peace talks with Israel, which resumed recently, would become a “political cover for the implementation of the largest settlement project.”
They accused the Israeli government of working toward undermining “all prospects for peace.”
Referring to recent Israeli plans to build new housing units in settlements and some east Jerusalem neighborhoods, the PLO leaders said: “The PLO Executive Committee considers the unprecedented settler decisions which were announced by the occupation government as conclusive proof that Israel’s first and last option remains expansionism, Judaization and theft of Palestinian land, and not ending occupation and implementing the two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders.”
The committee warned that Israel’s actions would prompt the PA leadership to reassess its position toward the peace talks.
The PLO leaders criticized the US administration for failing to exert pressure on Israel to halt settlement construction.
“We hold the US administration responsible for stopping these Israeli war crimes and attempts to foil the peace process,” the leaders said in a statement. “The last settlement steps contradict assurances that the Palestinian Authority received during preparatory talks for launching the negotiations.”
The PLO also accused Israel of employing a policy of “ethnic cleansing” against Palestinians in Jerusalem.
“Israel’s practices will prompt the Palestinian leadership to demand the intervention of international courts and institutions against these war crimes, racist acts and violations of all international laws and conventions,” the statement cautioned.
PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo said after the meeting that Abbas had briefed participants on the latest developments surrounding the peace talks with Israel. He said that there can be no “combination between the negotiations and continued Israeli violations, especially settlement construction and the Judaization of Jerusalem.”
Abed Rabbo said that the PLO was seriously considering going to United Nations agencies to “discuss this dangerous issue.”
The Palestinians, he added, are hoping that the US would play a larger role in the peace talks between the PA and Israel.