The PLO’s chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, on Thursday issued a 56-page report in which he suggested that the PLO retract its recognition of Israel if the status quo continues.
In a report entitled ‘Determining Palestinian-Israeli relations: Changing, not merely improving, the situation’, quoted by the Ma’an news agency, Erekat recommends that the PLO leadership consider retracting its recognition of Israel until the Jewish state issues a reciprocal recognition of a Palestinian state.
The study recommended that the Palestinian Authority (PA) should reject any international call for recognizing Israel as a Jewish state and must not approve the deployment of Israeli forces along the Jordan Valley as part of any peace agreement.
The PLO must also reject any concessions to its sovereignty over eastern Jerusalem, Erekat’s study added, according to Ma’an.
While not calling explicitly for disbanding the PA, Erekat said that the authority’s power must extend beyond security coordination and salary distribution.
Erekat suggested that efforts be made for Hamas and Islamic Jihad to join the PLO’s Executive Committee and urged the PLO and the other Palestinian Arab factions to support “popular resistance” and the boycott of products made in Judea and Samaria.
Erekat’s call is the latest in a series of initiatives taken by the PA against Israel, and it comes one week after PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas called for a “review” of the PA’s agreements with Israel.
“Israel must stop violating agreements and commit to them. They should stop settlement activity, ‘Judaization’ activities in Jerusalem that bury its Islamic and Christian religious identity and features, and release prisoners,” Abbas said.
The PA is also moving ahead with moves against Israel in international institutions, and will next week submit its first “war crimes” file to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Contrary to PA “war crimes” charges, international law experts have criticized Israel for warning Gazans too much and harming the ability of Western democracies to combat terror.
