An American delegation arrived Saturday to Israel to give Tel Aviv the green light to start annexing parts of the West Bank, while Israeli media reported that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refused to receive a phone call from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
According to Israeli media, the American delegation includes Special Envoy to the Middle East Avi Berkowitz and a member of the American-Israeli Mapping Committee to annex parts of the West Bank Scott Faith, accompanied by the American Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
The Hebrew Radio quoted an American official as saying that the delegation will stay for several days during which it will hold meetings with senior Israeli officials, especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the alternate prime minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
The delegation will work to inform Israeli officials about the American position after consultations that took place in the White House during the past days, which have not yet reached a clear decision.
The Israeli Prime Minister has announced on more than one occasion that his government wants to start the annexation process, which will cover 30% of the West Bank, in July.
In response, Abbas announced, last month, that the PLO was in the process of dissolving agreements with Israel because of the annexation decision. On the other hand, many countries in the world warned of the dangers of Tel Aviv annexing the West Bank lands to the peace process in the region.
Abbas and Pompeo
On the other hand, an official Israeli channel revealed, on Saturday evening, that the Palestinian President refused to receive a phone call from the American Secretary of State.
Kan TV reported that Abbas had strongly refused to hold a phone conversation with Pompeo, or to meet him directly, without specifying the date of that contact, and noted that Pompeo was planning to discuss the Israeli annexation plan with the Palestinian President.
The official channel said that a meeting was held last week between CIA representatives and Palestinian officials (whom they did not name) to try to persuade them to open a dialogue with the American administration on what is known as the alleged deal of the century, but this attempt was unsuccessful.
On the same level, Palestinian sources said to the channel, whose name was not given, that the Palestinian leadership informed European and American officials that if Israel implemented the annexation plan, it would dissolve the authority and surrender the weapons of the security services to the Israeli army.
In this context, the secretary of the Executive Committee of the PLO, Saeb Erekat, warned on Saturday against accepting any Arab steps for normalization with Israel, in exchange for withdrawing the scheme of annexing the lands.
In an interview on Palestine TV on Saturday, Erekat said: There are those who speak that if Israel retracts the annexation, we will print relations with it, adding, "This is a mistake, because we have an Arab peace initiative that says that normalization comes if Israel withdraws from the territories occupied in 1967, and the Golan, The refugee issue is resolved. "
The peace initiative, approved by the Arab League in 2002, stipulates the establishment of an internationally recognized Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, a just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees, Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, and the lands still occupied in southern Lebanon, in exchange for recognition Arab countries with Israel, and the normalization of relations with it.
Erekat stressed, during his speech, that if Israel implemented the annexation of Palestinian lands, it must bear its responsibility on the ground, and said: Netanyahu will be responsible for collecting garbage in Rafah, Jerusalem, and Hebron, and he will bear his full responsibility as the occupying power.
Popular positions
Yesterday, the PLO factions organized, on the lands of Bardala village in the northern Jordan Valley, the activities of the third national conference to confront the Tel Aviv plan to annex the lands.
Participants from the leaders of the national and Islamic action factions affirmed their rejection of Israel’s plans to annex lands from the West Bank and impose sovereignty over them. They also stressed the need to strengthen the internal front to confront these plans that eliminate the hope of establishing a sovereign Palestinian state.
Eyewitnesses said that the occupation forces have erected military roadblocks to prevent the citizens from reaching the conference site.
The Islamic Movement in Jordan implemented a human chain in the capital, Amman, in protest of the Israeli annexation plan.
The protesters demanded the cessation of all forms of normalization with the occupation, the cancellation of the gas agreement with Israel, and the adherence to the right of return, as they warned of the dangers of the annexation project on the stability and security of the kingdom.
In France, human rights associations and organizations organized a demonstration in the capital, Paris, in opposition to the Israeli annexation plan.
The participants condemned the repression practiced by Israel against the Palestinians, calling on their country to take a firm stand against Israel and rejected its intention to annex 30% of the West Bank lands.
He assured the island's Eric Cockerel, a leader of a party called "rebel France", that annexing Israel to parts of the West Bank would eliminate the last chance to establish peace on the basis of the principle of two states.
On January 28, US President Donald Trump announced what is known as the so-called deal of the century, which includes the establishment of a Palestinian state in the form of an archipelago connected by bridges and tunnels, and made the city of Jerusalem an undivided capital for Israel, and that the Jordan Valley be controlled by Tel Aviv.