The Palestinians will study alternatives to peace talks with Israel in the coming days, a top Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official said on Saturday, after Israel gave the green light to build new houses for Jews on war-won land Palestinians seek for their state.
However, it’s unlikely the Palestinians will take any dramatic steps before the Nov. 2 midterm elections in the US, since Arab leaders have already promised US President Barack Obama’s administration more time — until a few days after the vote — to try to relaunch negotiations.
Saturday’s statements seemed intended mainly as a new warning that Washington’s peace efforts are in trouble.
Photo: EPA
The negotiations, launched by the US early last month, quickly broke down over Israel’s refusal to extend a limited curb on construction in West Bank settlements, deemed illegal by the international community.
The Palestinians want to establish their state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem — territories Israel captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War — and say there is no point negotiating as long as expanding settlements gobble up more of that land.
Almost half a million Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel’s 10-month moratorium on new housing starts in the West Bank expired on Sept. 26. Israel never formally declared building restrictions in East Jerusalem, though an informal freeze was believed to have been in effect for several months.
However, Israel announced on Thursday plans to build 238 more homes for Jews in East Jerusalem, sought by the Palestinians as a future capital.
The Palestinians sharply criticized the move. Both the US and Russia said in separate statements that they were disappointed by Israel’s announcement and that the new construction plans run counter to efforts to rescue the negotiations.
On Saturday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with leaders of the PLO and his Fatah movement at his headquarters in the West Bank.
The Palestinians plan to study their options in coming days, PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo said.
“These political options include going to the UN and to the Security Council,” he said.
Palestinian officials have said in the past they might ask the Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, in case negotiations with Israel break down. The US could quickly derail such a move with a veto and it appears unlikely the Palestinians would proceed down that path without US backing. For now, Washington opposes unilateral steps.
Mohammed Ishtayeh, a senior Fatah official, said the Palestinians would have prepared options by the time they consult with the Arab League in three weeks.
“We and the Arabs will choose which of these options can be implemented,” he said. “It’s not just a matter of going here or there, without having an outcome on the ground, because some of these options need American consent or facilitation.”
Abed Rabbo, meanwhile, rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent proposal that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish national homeland, in exchange for Israel reimposing the curb on settlements.
Abed Rabbo noted that the PLO and Israel formally recognized each other in 1993.
“There is no need to reopen the issue [of recognition],” he said.
Meanwhile, Israel’s UN envoy said ahead of new Security Council talks today on the Middle East conflict that his country would only stop its disputed settlement building when the Palestinians make a peace agreement.
However, Israel would be concerned if Arab nations pressed ahead with a campaign to get UN recognition of a Palestinian state before any accord, Israeli UN Ambassador Meron Reuben said in an interview.
Reuben will face new -international pressure when he appears before a Security Council meeting on Israeli-Palestinian hostilities.
“People understand,” Reuben declared. “I don’t think they agree with the way we are going, but they definitely understand the fact that settlements are not a burden on the peace process and not something that will stop the peace process.”
“The other side is only looking for pretexts to put obstacles in the road, because they were never an obstacle in the road” in the past, Reuben said.
The ambassador said Israeli settlements in the Sinai desert did not prevent the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt — “and they were dismantled” — nor Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.
“They were not an obstacle when we dealt with the Palestinians year-in and year-out since 1993” when the Oslo Accords were made, he said.
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