PLO OFFICIAL SLAMS ‘HOLLOW TALK’ BY ISRAEL’S NETANYAHU

Ramallah, 19 Dhulqa’dah 1436/3 September 2015 (MINA) – A Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official on Wednesday described recent assertions by Israel’s prime minister – in which he voiced his readiness to resume peace talks with the Palestinians – as “hollow talk”.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted by the Israeli media as saying that he was ready to go to Ramallah the seat of Palestine’s government and “sit down with” Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the resumption of negotiations.

In a Wednesday radio interview, however, Saeb Erekat, secretary of the PLO’s executive committee, described Netanyahu’s reported remarks as “hollow public-relations talk”, World Bulletin quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Erekat went on to describe the Israeli PM as the “head of the [Jewish] settlers’ government”, which, he asserted, had refused to free Palestinian prisoners despite earlier pledges to so and repudiated a number of signed agreements.

Netanyahu, Erekat added, was “working to destroy the two-state solution” and maintain Israel’s policy of unhindered Jewish settlement construction on stolen Palestinian land.

“He [Netanyahu] wants a Palestinian Authority without any authority and to isolate the [blockaded] Gaza Strip from the [occupied] West Bank,” the PLO official said.

He went on to note that PA President Mahmoud Abbas planned to deliver a seminal speech at a UN General Assembly meeting later this month, which, Erekat said, would show Israel to be “an occupying power” vis-à-vis Palestine.

Negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators ground to a halt one year ago over the self-proclaimed Jewish state’s refusal to release a group of Palestinian prisoners despite earlier promises to do so. (T/P002/R04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)