Ramallah: Fatah will never recognise Israel as a Jewish state, Mahmoud Al Aloul, a top Palestinian official who was recently selected as deputy Fatah leader told Gulf News.
In an exclusive interview, Al Aloul discussed the most pressing issues facing the Palestinian people in 2017 including the Trump administration, national reconciliation with Hamas, security coordination with Israel and making the Palestinian cause a priority in the Arab world again.
“Fatah will never ever recognise Israel as a Jewish State, because this forms a threat to the rights of the Palestinians who live within the 1948 boundaries. Netanyahu should ask the UN to do this rather than the Palestinians,” he said.
Al Aloul also said Fatah remains committed to a two-state solution amid debate stirred up recently by US President Donald Trump when he floated the idea of a one state solution as an option.
“Israeli measures and colonialism make the two-state solution impossible, but despite that, it is still the option preferred by Fatah,” he said.
“It would require the removal of Jewish colonies from Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, and full sovereignty.”
“The most important issue for us is the end of Israeli occupation inside 1967 borders,” he said.
Palestinians fear a Trump presidency will give Israel the green light to further colonise Palestinian land and even annex parts of the Occupied West Bank.
“Palestinians feel as alone as ever. Arab countries are busy with their own internal crises. The cause has been forgotten,” he said.
Al Aloul, for years a close Abbas confidant, has clout among the party’s grass roots and has a military background. He is the first deputy leader appointed since Fatah’s founding in the 1960s by former Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat, but it remains unclear whether Al Aloul would succeed Abbas as president.
