Ramallah: In the event of a failure of peace talks with the Israeli occupation, the Palestinians will absolve themselves of responsibility to govern the occupied territories and hand authority back to the Israelis or the United Nations, a senior Palestinian official has warned.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has been considering the option of disbanding the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in response to the failure of the current round of peace talks with the Israelis, PLO Executive Committee member Hanna Amerah told Palestinian news agency Ma’an on Saturday.
Amira said that there were “scenarios ... that could lead to the disbandment of the PNA.”
“The future of the PNA has become unclear because when it was established, it was meant as a temporary stage leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state,” Amerah told Ma’an news agency. “Thus, if the PNA doesn’t lead to statehood, things should be reviewed.”
If the move materialises, the Israeli regime may have to bear the burden of running Palestinian territories, which costs around Dh2 billion that donor countries pay the PNA.
The Central Council of the PLO will hold a meeting on April 26, only days before the deadline for the peace talks expires on April 29, and at this meeting key decisions will be made about the future of the promised Palestinian state.
The Israeli daily Yedioth Aharonoth reported that behind the scenes, the PNA has come up with a plan that may gravely complicate matters for the Israelis: a declaration that the Palestinians are an “occupied government”.
Such a move would annul the Oslo Accords upon which the PNA was created and revoke the status of PNA as a sovereign authority, leaving the Israelis with full responsibility for the Palestinian population in the West Bank.
If the plan proceeds, the Palestinian leaders will keep their official authority, but Jewish colonies will be significantly more vulnerable to litigation in international courts, according to Yedioth Aharonoth’s English site Ynet.
“What has been planned and discussed is handing the PNA [responsibility] to another party,” Amerah told Gulf News.
“It should be clear that it will impossible for the Palestinian national leadership to remain indefinitely on top of the PNA under the status quo,” he said, referring to the deadlock with the Israeli occupation.
“One of the proposed scenarios is handing the PNA to Israel and if transfer was necessary, the leadership would consider handing the PNA to the UN General Assembly or the Security Council,” he stressed.
Amerah said that the PLO Central Council will come up with critical decisions that will drive the entire peace process.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Sunday that Israeli military leaders confirmed that their Palestinian counterparts were sincerely debating dismantling the PNA’s security apparatus and disarming it. The security apparatus coordinates with the Israeli occupation to maintain security in the Palestinian territories, often handling the task of preventing Palestinian attacks against the occupation.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said in a weekend interview with Egyptian newspaper Al Masri Al Youm that the two state solution is slipping away, and it is instead leaning toward a solution of a bi-national state. “As long as I am the leader, however, I support a two state solution and not a bi-national state,” he said.
Abbas said that his time was coming to an end. “Time has really flown by. There is no other option except to pass the flag and move on,” he said.
On his part, the Israeli Economy Minster Naftali Bennet welcomed what Israel termed as Abbas’s threat saying that “If he wants to go, we won’t stop him,” he said.
“The Jewish people do not negotiate with a gun held against their temple,” he stressed, referring to Temple Mount, a site sacred for Jews that Muslims know as Al Haram Al Sharif, which houses Al Aqsa Mosque.
