Middle East Monitor / December 18, 2022
The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Saturday rejected Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer for self-rule, reports Anadolu Agency.
PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said restoring the Palestinian rights is the key to security and peace in the Middle East, a day after Netanyahu said he would offer Palestinians a self-rule with security to remain in Israel’s hands.
“The Palestinian people have the right to establish their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, which is the basis for achieving a just peace based on international legitimacy resolutions,” Abu Rudeineh said in a statement cited by state news agency WAFA.
“There will be no peace with the policy of annexation and apartheid. There will be no peace as long as the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people continues,” he added.
The Palestinian spokesman said the world is “tired” of such Israeli positions on the Middle East peacemaking.
On Thursday, Netanyahu said in an interview with the Washington-based National Public Radio (NPR) that he would offer Palestinians self-rule with security issues in Israel’s hands.
“Palestinians have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten our life, which means that security, in whatever political arrangements we’ll have, realistically will have to remain in Israel’s hands,” he said.
Peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis collapsed in April 2014 as Tel Aviv refused to stop settlement building and release Palestinian detainees imprisoned before 1993.
Palestinians warn that Netanyahu’s upcoming government will be the most radical in terms of dealing with them, expanding settlements construction across the occupied West Bank and violations against the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.
