Palestinian factions today called on the Palestinian Authority not to participate in the Sharm el-Sheikh security summit on Sunday. This comes as Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the Israeli government seeks to "erase" the 1967 borders and resolve the conflict in favor of colonialism.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Islamic Jihad said in a joint statement that they condemned in the strongest terms the PA's insistence on participating in the Sharm el-Sheikh security summit, which constitutes a coup against the popular will.
The statement added that "Israel is taking advantage of these summits and security meetings to launch more aggression against our people."
He called on the leadership of the Palestinian Authority not to participate in the conference.
In another joint statement, the People's Party, the Democratic Front and the Fida Movement called on Egypt and Jordan to cancel the Sharm el-Sheikh meeting and not to proceed with this path "extremely dangerous for the Palestinian people and their just rights."
The three factions called on President Mahmoud Abbas to stop Palestinian participation in the meeting.
Those meetings had become of a security nature, separate from the essence of the political cause of the Palestinian people, which was to end the occupation.
On Thursday, the Islamist group Hamas called on the Palestinian Authority not to participate in the Sharm el-Sheikh security summit.
In a statement, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem denounced the PA's announcement of its intention to participate in another security meeting with Israeli participation.
In February, a five-way meeting was held in the southern Jordanian city of Aqaba between the Palestinian and Israeli sides, in the presence of representatives of the United States, Jordan and Egypt.
The meeting concluded with the announcement of an agreement to suspend unilateral measures for specific months, including the cessation of settlement promotion, and a second meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Last Wednesday, the Palestinian leadership decided to participate in the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, according to a statement issued by the office of PLO Executive Committee Secretary Hussein al-Sheikh.
Since the beginning of 2023, clashes have escalated in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, resulting in the death of 84 Palestinians and 14 Israelis in separate attacks.
Occupation Plans
In a related context, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said that the Israeli government seeks to "erase" the 1967 borders and resolve the conflict in favor of colonialism.
Shtayyeh added – in a speech to the annual conference of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Research Center held in Ramallah – that the Israeli government aims to reoccupy the West Bank, survey the 1967 borders, and resolve the conflict in favor of the occupation and its colonial tools.
"Israel is waging various kinds of war against the Palestinian people in the absence of a political horizon, under an American administration that does not want to do anything, as well as the Ukraine crisis and Europe's preoccupation with it, which has affected us financially and politically," he said.
Shtayyeh said that Israel "carries out intensive assassinations, arrests and systematic destruction of the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state in light of a bitter and torn Arab reality, subject to unprecedented foreign interference."
The peace process between the Palestinian and Israeli sides has been frozen since April 2014, due to Tel Aviv's refusal to stop settlement construction in the occupied territories and its denial of the 1967 borders (represented by the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem) as a basis for negotiating the establishment of a Palestinian state.