Shtayyeh: Trump's plan proposes no apartheid
We reject the deal because it gave Jerusalem to the Israelis and proposes a temporal and spatial division in Al-Aqsa
Prime Minister Dr. Muhammad Shtayyeh: "The plan revealed by US President Trump proposes a system of apartheid, no more, and legitimizes a colonial program in the West Bank."
Shtayyeh said during a television interview with CNN channel presented Thursday morning: "The Palestinian leadership and people rejected this plan because it simply gives Jerusalem completely to the Israelis, creates a temporal and spatial division in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and keeps the Jewish settlements on the Palestinian territories, so that 720 thousand settlers remain illegally on our lands. "
The Prime Minister added: "What President Trump actually provides is 60% of the 22% of historic Palestine, meaning that he wants to cut 40% of the Palestinian territories, at a time when the Oslo agreement was supposed to guarantee all of the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinians what constitutes the Palestinian state."
He continued: "This plan simply creates Palestinian" Bantustans "within the State of Israel, and the Palestinians cannot accept this reality in any way.
On American allegations that the Palestinians are missing opportunities, Shtayyeh explained: "This is not an opportunity, nor a prelude to negotiation, but rather the maintenance of the fait accompli, and calling it a Palestinian state."
The Prime Minister stressed that "this plan cannot be a substitute for international law, and it has no partners. It is a partnership between two allies, the United States and Israel, from which the Palestinians were completely excluded."
Shtayyeh confirmed that "the whole world issued statements rejecting the Trump initiative, and the Arabs can only be on the side of the Palestinians, and that means that they stand on the side of Netanyahu."
The Prime Minister continued: "This plan is 100% biased for the Israelis, and it is in complete harmony with what Netanyahu wants, because he is its author, as it carries the same language, ideas and speeches that we heard and read previously."
Shtayyeh denounced that the proposed plan "does not have sovereignty for the Palestinians, no control over the crossings, and it does not talk about releasing Palestinian prisoners, and more importantly, breaking the status quo in the Haram al-Sharif," considering that the initiative represents a retrogression and not forward.
The Prime Minister emphasized that "the plan includes legitimacy to violate international law in order to keep the status quo as it is, while forgetting that we are talking about an Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories."
He said: "Israel should not be allowed to be above the law. It violates human rights, confiscates Palestinian lands, and illegally builds Jewish settlements."
He continued, "The United States cannot grant things it does not possess, these are Palestinian lands, and Israel cannot annex any part of it," stressing that "what is happening now is that the US administration is trying to create a new reference for the solution, and to give legitimacy to this annexation, and this is a very dangerous situation ".
He added: "Arab foreign ministers will meet in Cairo next Saturday, and their voices will be loud and clear, with a certainty of their support for Palestinian rights."
He continued: "Some Arab countries believe that it is possible to give an opportunity to this initiative, but that is not possible because it simply gives Jerusalem (the future capital of Palestine) to the Israelis, and no Arab country will accept Israel's annexation of Jerusalem."
Regarding the Palestinian capital that Trump talked about in his vicinity, Shtayyeh said, "President Trump says that the Palestinians can choose any land outside the borders of Jerusalem, that is, the wall that the occupation built, name it Jerusalem and consider it as their capital."
He continued: "Jerusalem is not any part of Jerusalem, Jerusalem is the old town and the surrounding area and the entire basin of the Holy City, where 300 thousand Jerusalemites live in and around the city, Jerusalem is the city that was occupied in 1967, its heart is the church and its heart is the mosque, this is Jerusalem for us And we will not accept any other.”
The Prime Minister said: "For the first time, and since 1948, the number of Palestinians has exceeded the number of Israeli Jews by 200,000 in historic Palestine," explaining that this means that "Israel must face the truth, and if Netanyahu thinks he will win in the short term, he and Israel will lose." In the long run"
He explained: "Today, Israel has two options, either two states or one apartheid state, because the Israelis and Netanyahu specifically do not want a two-state solution or a one-state solution, but rather maintaining a fait accompli that creates catastrophic consequences and leads to an apartheid state in all of Palestine."