Ramallah : A senior Palestinian official reiterated on Wednesday after the Israeli elections results were out that without establishing a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, “there will be no peace in the Middle East”.
“The Palestinian position is the same Arab position that what is needed from the Israeli government is to be committed to the two-state solution and east Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state,” Xinhua news agency quoted Nabil Abu Rdineh, spokesman of the Palestinian presidency, as saying.
He said the Palestinians did not care who the Israeli prime minister was as “what we want is to see an Israeli government that recognises the two-state solution and east Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian state”.
Abu Rdineh’s remarks came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right wing Likud party won the highest number of seats in the parliamentary elections on Wednesday.
On the eve of the elections, Netanyahu repeated his rejection to the establishment of a Palestinian state and considered the city of Jerusalem the united and eternal capital of the state of Israel.
Meanwhile, Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committee, told Xinhua that Likud’s victory in the elections “is a victory of racism and for the occupation and settlement”.
He slammed the right wing in Israel as “a psychic society similar to the minority white community in South Africa”, adding that “the Palestinians shouldn’t be panicked or confused, because we have our means of response”.
“We can submit to the international corporations and international courts, but in order to do this, the Palestinians should be united,” said the PLO official, who called for the formation of a wide Palestinian unity government.
Rabbo said the PLO executive committee would hold a meeting on Thursday “to debate and discuss the mechanisms of implementing the last decisions of the central council related to halting security coordination with Israel”.
Saeb Erekat, another senior Palestinian official, warned on Tuesday night of the consequences of Netanyahu’s future policies after he formed a new Israeli government.
“It has become clear that Netanyahu will form the coming Israeli government and the entire world listened to what he declared that there will be no Palestinian state and will continue settlement,” Erekat told Xinhua.
He clarified that Netanyahu’s position “shows the rightness of the Palestinian diplomatic moves to join the International Criminal Court and the rightness of the decisions of the Palestinian Central Council”.