Senior Palestinian officials say suggestion that PA be dissolved in order to pressure Netanyahu into action "political suicide."
By KHALED ABU TOAMEHPLO Executive Committee(photo credit: REUTERS)
The PLO on Saturday dismissed a call by former minister, MK and peace negotiator Yossi Beilin to dismantle the Palestinian Authority.Beilin, in an article published in Foreign Policy magazine, called on PA President Mahmoud Abbas to dissolve the PA and “return daily control to Israel.”Addressing Abbas, Beilin wrote: “Do not let Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu hide behind the fig leaf of the Palestinian Authority – impose upon him, once again, the responsibility for the fate of 4 million Palestinians.”The PA was established in 1994 as part of the Oslo Accords as an interim body to oversee the Palestinian territories while final status negotiations between the PLO and Israel would take place.Beilin also accused US President Barack Obama of pressuring Abbas to maintain the status quo in the peace process.“It is a mistake to agree to Obama’s request, and you [Abbas] can rectify this,” he wrote.Hana Amireh, member of the PLO Executive Committee, dismissed Beilin’s call, saying it would be tantamount to “political suicide.”Amireh said the PA had a transitional role to bring the Palestinians to an independent state and achieve their rights.A PA official in Ramallah said over the weekend that dissolving the PA was not not an option.The official denied that Abbas had any plans to dismantle the PA because of the stalemate in the peace process.
Abbas is planning to send a letter to Netanyahu in the coming days that does not include such a threat, the official told The Jerusalem Post.The letter, he added, would hold Israel fully responsible for the current stalemate because of its refusal to stop construction in the settlements and east Jerusalem neighborhoods and accept the pre-1967 lines as the future borders of a Palestinian state.Abbas’s letter, which will be delivered to Netanyahu by PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, will also demand the release of Palestinians who were imprisoned before the signing of the Oslo Accords nearly two decades ago, the official noted.
