The Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) held a meeting led by President Mahmoud Abbas, and said that heading to the United Nations in November aims at boosting the chances for restarting the political process.The Committee discussed the arrangements for submitting the UN membership application, and the ongoing related talks with different countries, especially Arab states, to garner international support.
It said that all related parties must perform their duties in this campaign that aims at restoring the path of the political process “as it is just running is circles without any progress due to Israel’s ongoing violations”.
The Committee added that filing for UN membership as an observer state is a legitimate right guaranteed by all international legitimacy resolutions, and all related Security Council resolutions.
It said that the Palestinian people are struggling for their liberation and independence, and that the Palestinian popular nonviolent struggle against the illegal Israeli occupation, Israel’s illegal settlements, will continue until liberation and independence.
Israel and the United States imposed strict financial sanctions on the Palestinian Authority for heading to the UN, and considered the move to be unilateral.
The P.A said that Israel is ongoing with its violations and assaults against the Palestinian people, their lands and property, and their holy sites, and that Israel’s ongoing settlement construction and expansion activities in the occupied West Bank, including in and around occupied East Jerusalem, prove that Israel is not interested in peace, and is using the peace talks to continue its violations.
It is worth mentioning that the Applied Research Institute In Jerusalem (ARIJ) reported that the Israeli violations are costing the Palestinian economy more than $5.6 Billion each year.
ARIJ said that Israel is preventing the Palestinians from being engaged in local and international marketing opportunities, and is controlling natural resources in the West Bank, illegally annexing Palestinian lands, especially in Area C, and is controlling all border terminals, therefor it controls all Palestinian imports and exports.
The Palestinian economy is also directly impacted by Israeli illegal settlement activities, roadblocks and closures.
Israel uses the tax money it collects on border terminals on behalf of the P. A. as a means to pressure the Palestinian leadership into resuming the peace talks, while Tel Aviv continues its violations and illegal settlement activities on the expense of the Palestinian people and their land.
The United States is also refraining from transferring aid money to the P.A. in an attempt to force it resume direct peace talks with Tel Aviv without any Israeli commitment to halt its illegal activities.
