Palestine Asks Israel to Table a Peace Plan
Ishtaye told the Palestinian cabinet that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's plan to limit the violence "is nothing more than dust in the eyes of the international community."
Ramallah: Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye has urged that Israel produce a peace plan for achieving a “two-state solution” on 1967 lines.
Ishtaye told the Palestinian cabinet that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s plan to limit the violence “is nothing more than dust in the eyes of the international community.”
“Neither the US nor Europe would buy Bennett’s plan,” Ishtaye said, adding that “easing the conflict is a plan geared at diminishing Palestinian land and repositioning the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories.”
Bennett’s idea was purportedly announced Friday during an off-the-record Zoom conversation with officials from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, according to reports.
Bennett was quoted in the Israeli media as saying, “Steps to lessen tensions with the Palestinians will be taken, even if there is no political breakthrough,” and “everyone recognizes that we do not expect a political breakthrough with the Palestinians in the near future.”
“Reducing tension with the Palestinians is through the halt of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and a timeframe for ending the Israeli occupation,” Ishtaye said during the weekly cabinet meeting.
“Apart from that, it stays in its current shape and does not address the core of the issue, which is tied to ending the occupation, halting settlements, and finding a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem,” he added. In the 1967 Middle East war, Israel conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim, and has governed them ever since. (IANS)
