Ramallah: The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine is calling on the Palestinian negotiating team to suspend direct talks with Israel.

The Front said the team should not have gone to Sharm Al Shaikh in Egypt to take part in direct negotiations with Israel until after September 26. This was when the Israeli Government’s official attitude towards a freeze on building in the colony would be clear, the Front said.

By that time, the Democratic Front added, the Palestinians would know for sure if the Israelis were going to continue with or put a stop to building thousands of home units for colonists in more than 26 colonies in the West Bank.

The Democratic Front proposed that the Palestinians file a case against Israel with the UN and its Security Council, International Higher Court, Human Rights Council, the states which signed the fourth Geneva Convention, and the International Criminal Court.

The Front urged the international community to shoulder its responsibilities and press Israel into halting its construction activities in the colonies. Those activities were defined by the International Human and Criminal laws as war crimes, the Democratic Front said.

Tayseer Khalid, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and a member of the Democratic Front Political Bureau, said the Palestinian negotiating team should not have gone to Sharm Al Shaikh to get involved in direct negotiations with the Israelis.

He said the Palestinian team should wait until the end of September to find out for certain about the Israelis’ intentions regarding the colony freeze - especially if the Israelis were going to proceed with building thousands of housing units for colonists in the West Bank once the current colony freeze expired.

Members of the Palestinian public had suffered in response to announcements that the building of thousands of new home units was to resume once the colony freeze expired, he said. They had also suffered due to other factors related to the colony construction on the ground.

Khalid said the current Israeli government was a “government of colonists” and that its combative style would only serve to weaken the Palestinians’ position during the negotiations, and weaken international sympathy for their plight.

The fact that the Palestinians had dropped preconditions in order to take part in direct negotiations would be a major temptation for the Israelis to never renew the colony freeze, and to resume construction in the Jewish West Bank colonies, Khalid said. It would also serve to encourage the colonists to steal more Palestinian land at an unprecedented pace.

The Palestinian Liberation Organisation member said he valued the attitude of a number of European Union foreign affairs ministers, whom Israel refused to receive. This was in order to avoid any type of pressure the ministers might put on the Israeli government to renew the colony freeze, he said.

Khalid also criticised what he described as continuous attempts by the US to find compromising solutions for the deadlock between the Israelis and the Palestinians.