Qurei: Israel must return every inch of occupied Jerusalem
"Israel must return every inch of occupied Jerusalem," and "Jerusalem is the key to peace, security and stability in the Middle East," said Palestinian Legislative Council speaker Ahmed Qurei, Abu Ala, who demanded that Israel withdraw completely from the city it occupied in the June 1967 war.
Abu Ala strongly condemned Israel's decision to broaden the city of Jerusalem and said the move was to torpedo the final status talks on Jerusalem and destroy the remaining chances for peace in the region.
"All of the activities and unilateral measures that Israel puts on the ground in Jerusalem and other areas are illegitimate and invalid and must end with the end of the occupation. The announcement of the Israeli Prime Minister is illegal and must be fought by every means if the Israeli government does not retract this decision," he said, voicing deep anger among the Palestinian government over the decision the Israeli Cabinet took on Sunday. Abu Ala expressed hopes that the Israeli government "is not under any delusion that it can trade a piece of land here for a piece of land from Jerusalem, and that it can barter this criminal act with the implementation of the pitiful redeployment that the US administration has proposed, and continues to delay announcing."
It becomes clearer day after day, said Abu Ala, that the language Israel is speaking is not the language of peace, and her disregard for international law is a disregard for the signed agreements.
For the first time perhaps that a senior Palestinian official speaks openly of a possible cessation of peace moves towards Israel, Abu Ala warned that the Palestinian government would not continue to be bound by the agreements if the Israeli government continued her violations. "I call on all parliaments of the world that believe in justice and peace to raise their voice in denouncement of the Israeli decision, and pressure (Israel) to reverse this decision that contravenes with every concept of peace in the region."
Palestinian Presidential Secretary Tayyeb Abdul Rahim, meanwhile, said the PLO would call for an emergency session by the UN Security Council within the coming few days "to confront the Israeli decisions aiming at Judaizing Jerusalem," He confirmed reports that consultations have already started with leading members of the UN for this purpose.
Abdul Rahim accused Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu of having clear intentions to destroy the peace process. "It is really strange to see how Netanyahu rejected to withdraw from 13 percent of the West Bank and insisted on a percentage of less than 10 percent at time his government decides to annex more than 10 percent of the West Bank area, referring to areas east of Jerusalem that are to become of the so-called Greater Jerusalem under Israeli control.
On a different matter, Abdul Rahim rejected the proposed referendum on the second phase redeployment that is being discussed by Israeli officials at present. He said the move is only a means to gain more time and kill the question of Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank for a number of months to come. Abdul Rahim reiterated calls for an Arab summit to convene and discuss the latest developments and the Israeli measures in Jerusalem.
He charged "certain Arab countries" without naming them of obstructing the efforts to convene the Arab summit and said that the latest visit to the region by US State Department senior ambassador Thomas Pikering aimed to delay the summit. Abdul Rahim argued that the failure of the Arab states to convene a summit has apparently encouraged Netanyahu and his government to go ahead with their plan to Judaize the remaining parts of Jerusalem.