PA leaders meet to seek mechanisms that ‘define’ relations with Israel

Both the PLO and Fatah accused Israel of turning its back on signed agreements with the Palestinians.

By ABU KHALED TOAMEH
PA President Mahmoud Abbas (C) at a meeting for the Central Council of the PLO, in Ramallah, March 4, 2015 (photo credit: REUTERS)
PA President Mahmoud Abbas (C) at a meeting for the Central Council of the PLO, in Ramallah, March 4, 2015
(photo credit: REUTERS)
For the second time in less than 24 hours, a key decision-making Palestinian body met in Ramallah to discuss putting in place mechanisms to “define” the Palestinian Authority’s relations with Israel.
The discussions come amid increased demands from Palestinians to suspend relations in wake of Israel’s “refusal to abide by signed agreements” with the Palestinians.
On Saturday, the PLO Executive Committee during a meeting chaired by PA President Mahmoud Abbas entrusted a special committee to discuss the issue.
The Fatah Central Committee also met in Ramallah on Sunday to discuss “defining security, economic and political relations” between the PA and Israel. This meeting was also chaired by Abbas.
Both the PLO and Fatah accused Israel of turning its back on signed agreements with the Palestinians and “stepping up its dangerous assaults” on the Palestinians.
They also accused Israel of carrying out “summary executions, ethnic cleansing, desecrating Islamic holy sites and house demolitions.”
A statement released by the Fatah leaders following their meeting said Israel’s measures were tantamount to “war crimes” and accused Israel of destroying the two-state solution and working toward creating a one-state solution with an “apartheid” system.
The Fatah committee hailed the Palestinians killed in the recent wave of violence as “martyrs and heroes.”
In a related development, the PA Foreign Affairs Ministry strongly condemned “continued invasions” by Jewish groups to al-Aqsa Mosque and said that these “invasions” were aimed at dividing the Temple Mount in time and space between Muslims and Jews.
It warned that the Israeli government was seeking to turn the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a political one to a religious one.