Palestinian PM dismisses Netanyahu's direct talks proposal

May 25, 2016, 00:34
Palestinian PM dismisses Netanyahu's direct talks proposal

Valls is set to meet with the Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday to discuss the peace initiative.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he would speak to President Francois Hollande about the proposal while an aide to Valls later said there was little new in Netanyahu's remarks.

"We highly appreciate the French efforts to launch an global peace conference in order to put an end to the brutal Israeli occupation", Hamdallah said. "We want two states for two peoples, a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state, and I urge you not to let the Palestinian leadership shirk this hard choice".

Valls, who presents himself as "a friend of Israel", recalled how "the continuation of settlements ruins the establishment of a viable Palestinian state, when there is only one solution: two states for two peoples". "In the world of fact, the leading powers of the world will unwittingly enable the Palestinians to continue avoiding negotiations".

As Israel has rejected the French peace initiative to end Israeli occupation, and Palestinians welcomed it, the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has been pushing efforts to hold a three-way summit wit hthe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

During Valls' visit, French and Palestinian representatives signed three financial agreements, providing support for several projects in Palestine, including wastewater management in Hebron.

There has also been talk of the potential for a Cairo-led plan that could result in a summit between Abbas and Netanyahu, with ties between Israel and Egypt having improved in recent months.

In fact, Netanyahu did not wait for Valls to visit Israel, for the first time as the French Prime Minister, to express his rejection for Paris's peace initiative represented by holding an global conference in June, without the presence of the two parties involved, and another conference in the coming fall.

According to Al Jazeera, earlier this year, former French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said France would recognize a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem if the conference and efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks failed.

A Valls aide said the only new element in Netanyahu's comments was his mention of talks in Paris.

He has at the same time criticised Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank, considered a major stumbling block to peace.

"And both peace treaties, achieved through direct negotiations, have stood the test of time", Netanyahu said. It will create a Palestinian state not to live side-by-side next to Israel, but to eliminate Israel.

The peace talks between Israel and Palestine have been stalled since April 2014. Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say. The Palestinians, along with the worldwide community, have accused Netanyahu of undermining hopes for peace by expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the heartland of a hoped-for Palestinian state.

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