Senior Israeli officials held “secret talks” with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas nearly two months ago in an effort to calm escalating tensions in the West Bank, the website reported.Axios“.
The American website, quoting unnamed sources, stated that the Israeli National Security Adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, and the Secretary-General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hussein Al-Sheikh, made secret contacts several times and met face to face.
These previously undisclosed conversations are among the first evidence of direct communication between PA officials and Israel’s new right-wing government.
The sources said that the last meeting of Hannebughi and Sheikh was held in recent days and focused on settling the understandings that led to the suspension of the UN Security Council vote against Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Credit for creating a back channel between the Palestinian Authority and the new Israeli government goes to US President Joe Biden, a Palestinian official told the newspaper.Times of Israel“.
US officials agreed to Sheikh’s request to hold talks with the Israeli prime minister even before Netanyahu finished forming his government, according to the Israeli newspaper.
A senior Israeli official told Axios that the “back channel” does not focus on final status issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but rather on maintaining an open line of communication with the Palestinians in order to de-escalate tensions.
Hanegbi confirmed, in a general briefing to the Conference of Heads of Jewish Organizations in North America, on Monday, holding talks with the Palestinians to stop unilateral steps on both sides.
Hanegbi added that Israel called on the Palestinians to stop steps related to legal procedures in the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.
He said that the Palestinians demanded that Israel stop unilateral steps such as incursions into Palestinian cities.
Hanegbi did not address what Axios called the “secret back channel” or the fact that the talks have been going on for nearly two months.
The Israeli National Security Adviser said that Israel has made it clear to the Palestinians that it does not want to send the Israeli army to the cities of Jenin and Nablus in the West Bank, but is heading for this step because the security forces of the Palestinian Authority “do not do it themselves.”
The West Bank, one of the areas that the Palestinians demand to be part of their future state, has witnessed an escalation in violence since Israel intensified its raids last year in response to several deadly street attacks in its cities.
Hanegbi said Israel has told the Palestinians that they need to regain control of their cities, adding: “We will be happy to help. There is room for dialogue with the Palestinians and we hope it starts very soon.”
The new Netanyahu government, which was sworn in in late December, includes many hard-line ministers who are fiercely opposed to making any concessions to the Palestinians.
It was not clear whether some members of the far-right coalition – who also pushed for the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority and criticized previous governments’ contacts with Ramallah – were aware of the back channel, Axios reported.
Relations between the PA and the previous government led by former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid were often open, with several ministers meeting publicly with the PA’s president, Mahmoud Abbas.
