Palestinian PM Calls on EU to Play Effective to Oblige Israel to Respect Agreements

Ramallah, MINA – Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh called on the European Union (EU) to play an effective role in obliging Israel to respect the agreements it has signed and halt all unilateral measures in the Palestinian territories.

Prime Minister Shtayyeh made the remarks during a meeting with the Vice-President of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas at the Prime Minister’s Office in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, in the presence of the European Union representative to Palestine, Sven Kon von Burgsdorff, WAFA reported on Monday.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Shtayyeh discussed with Schinas the latest developments on the Palestinian arena in light of the political vacuum, while stressing the importance of creating international movement necessary to revive the Arab Peace Initiative, end the Israeli occupation and establish an independent Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital.

He added that Israel was imposing measures, which are not restricted to daily incursions, which are tantamount to a re-occupation of the West Bank, but also include extrajudicial killings, detention raids, land grab to make room for colonial settlement expansion and renewed settler-colonialism in the northern West Bank, all of which are intended to destroy the two-state solution and leads to the one-State solution in which Palestinians would form a majority, governed by a minority Israeli population in a form of apartheid.

Premier Shtayyeh pointed that not only has been Israel waging a war against Palestinian geography, finances and narrative, but also a religious war on Islamic and Christian holy sites, especially in Jerusalem, as it continues its policy of the de-Palestinization of Jersalem and attempts to spatially and temporally divide Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

He slammed Israel for preventing the Palestinian people from holding elections in the their territories, including Jerusalem.

He appreciated to EU for their ongoing support to Palestine at all levels in line with the Palestinian national priorities, as well as for its unwavering position in support of the two-state solution.

Schinas pledged that EU would continue to support Palestinian national priorities and needs in order to improve economic and social conditions, especially for youth, as well as the two-state solution, while voicing concern over Israeli encroachments upon Islamic and Christian holy sites and stressing the need to maintain the historical status quo, especially in Jerusalem.(T/R3/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)