The PA has been working with Jordanian officials to dissuade US President Donald Trump from proceeding with the dramatic embassy move.
By MICHAEL WILNERChief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat(photo credit: REUTERS)
WASHINGTON – The Palestine Liberation Organization has settled on a plan to forcefully counter the Trump administration should it choose to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a senior Palestinian official said on Thursday.Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestinian Authority, said the PLO would first revoke its 1993 decision to recognize the State of Israel, “because under no circumstances shall we recognize Israel and the United States saying east Jerusalem is annexed,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.“No. 2, the agreements signed with Israel will be dead, because Netanyahu decided to kill it,” he said. “So he will be responsible for paying the salaries of teachers, doctors, garbage collection in the West Bank, the entirety of the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The authority cannot be sustained – it will be destroyed, because he is destroying it.” Thirdly, the PLO would ask the UN General Assembly to suspend Israeli membership in the chamber “until it abides by international law.” The Palestinians are a non-member observer state at the UN.“The Palestinians at that moment, with no two-state solution – no possibility for a Palestinian state – they will demand equal rights, equal citizenship with Israel,” he said, characterizing a unitary Israeli state with control over the West Bank as an “apartheid” enterprise. “We will be trying to accommodate ourselves in the one-state reality that was created by... settlements.”The PA has been working with Jordanian officials to dissuade US President Donald Trump from proceeding with the dramatic embassy move.Jordan’s King Abdullah II is to arrive in Washington on Monday for meetings with Trump administration officials and members of Congress. The status of America’s embassy in Israel is expected to be a significant part of his conversations.
