2024-05-16 Time: 16:53:42 (Jerusalem)
President Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO Executive Committee follow up with deep concern the latest developments took place in the Gaza strip with regards to the latest escalation. We commend the efforts paid by the Arab Republic of Egypt that’s seeking to reach a truce, yet it has become clear that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is trying to use the situation to serve the upcoming elections and Netanyahu’s personal interest.
Israel, the occupying power, has tightened its draconian sea and land blockade of Gaza, after a rocket was fired. PM Netanyahu’s return from the US is intended to escalate the siege and aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza, create a tense atmosphere in the region, which eventually is part of the efforts towards pushing the Palestinian people and our Arab nations to surrender to the plan of the Trump Administration, in coordination with the Israeli government, including on Jerusalem, refugees and colonial-settlements as well as consolidate the division through separating the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, in addition to the Trump’s recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Arab Syrian Golan Heights.
The PLO Executive Committee makes use of this moment to reaffirm its full commitment with our historic official positions, which are fully based on international law and relevant UN resolutions, including to fully end the Israeli occupation that began in 1967, to materialize the State of Palestine on the 1967 border with East Jerusalem as its capital as well as the right of return of the Palestinian refugees in accordance with international law and UN resolution 194.
We call upon our people, in the homeland and abroad, to strengthen their national unity and exercise caution and vigilance in front of the current misleading attempts and to face the continued systematic aggression of the Israeli occupation.
We call upon the Arab World, its governments and peoples, to strengthen its solidarity and political action to thwart the attempts of the Trump Administration and of the extremist Israeli Government and adhere to the Arab Peace Initiative on its entirety.
The PLO Executive Committee extends the appreciation of the Palestinian people and the leadership to the position of His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan for his important step of cancelling his visit to Romania, expressing his country’s rejection to the statement delivered by the Romanian Prime Minister regarding her attempts to illegally move their embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. This announcement contradicts the historical friendship between the Romanian and Palestinian peoples, as well as with the entire Arab nation.
