ABBAS: “NO STATE WITHOUT JERUSALEM”

Ramallah, 28 Jumadil Akhir 1435/28 April 2014 (MINA) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stated, during a meeting of the Central Council of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), that the Palestinians will not agree to an independent state without Jerusalem as its capital.

“Jerusalem is the capital of our state”, Abbas said. “Without it, there can be no state, no peace.”

Abbas added that negotiations mean political action, and that the Palestinians want to achieve their legitimate rights through negotiations, the Milad News Agency has reported. International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

“The current situation proved to us Israel is not interested in a permanent solution”, he said. “The Oslo Agreement was an agreement on principles, not a permanent solution.”

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The Palestinian president further stated that any final status agreement with the Israelis would be subject to a referendum, adding that no leader, or person, can sign a deal without a referendum that includes all Palestinians, wherever they are.

Member of the Palestinian National Council, Salim Za’noun, called for preparing a constitution for the Palestinian State, and called on the Palestinian Authority to file more applications to join international conventions, including the International Criminal Court.

Za’noun added that the Palestinian leadership should also discuss the means to escalate and boost nonviolent popular resistance activities against the Israeli occupation, its illegitimate settlements and the apartheid wall.

Sixty-eight out of the 114 members of the Central Council managed to attend the meeting; the central committee coordinates between the Palestinian National Council and the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

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The Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu started a media campaign against the Palestinian Authority and its president Abbas, along with a series of measures meant to isolate the P.A. and, once again, withheld the transfer of tax money it collects on border terminals that it controls in the occupied West Bank.

Sanctions were imposed against businesspersons, companies and projects that are supposed to boost the Palestinian economy.

Israel wants the Palestinians to continue direct talks without freezing its illegitimate settlement construction and expansion activities, and without recognizing any of the internationally guaranteed Palestinian Rights, mainly the Right of Return of all refugees, and their right to a fully independent and sovereign Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital.

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Tel Aviv also wants to maintain control over natural resources, the Jordan Valley, and all vital areas of the occupied West Bank, including all border terminals.

Its illegitimate settlements and Apartheid Wall have turned the occupied territories into isolated cantons, besides leading to the illegal confiscation of Palestinian lands and orchards; large areas of Palestinian farmlands are now completely isolated behind the Wall.

Even during direct political talks with the P.A., the Israeli army continued its invasions, assaults, assassinations, arrests and home demolitions in different parts of the occupied West Bank, including in occupied East Jerusalem.(T/P02/P04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)