Middle East Monitor / July 12, 2021
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has drafted a list of demands which he intends to present to the US if negotiations with Israel resume, Israel’s Channel 12 has reported.
The report confirms that Abbas had prepared the list, which is still secret amid expectations that the Joe Biden administration is inclined to push for “Israeli-Palestinian” dialogue, which has stalled since 2014, under its auspices.
According to the same source, the list includes several demands, including the reopening of Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem, which the Israeli police and the General Security Service (Shin Bet) banned in 2001, and restoring the status quo in Al-Aqsa Mosque by restricting the Israeli police activity around the mosque, reducing settlers visits to the compound and enhancing the status of PA envoys.
The demands also include stopping the evictions of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem, such as the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighbourhoods, as well as releasing the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners, who have been detained by Israel prior to 1993.
Palestinians are also demanding that Israel halts settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories, including in East Jerusalem, and the evacuation of all settlement outposts from Palestinian land.
The list includes allocating areas in Area C, which represents about 60 per cent of the West Bank for factories, power stations, and tourism projects, transferring planning and licensing powers to the PA, strengthening its presence in Area B, and building railways for trains inside the West Bank, Channel 12 added.
