Shtayyeh: The Authority will not govern Gaza without an agreement that includes the West Bank in a unified Palestinian state
Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh said that the Palestinian Authority will not return to ruling Gaza without a comprehensive agreement that includes the annexation of the West Bank in a unified Palestinian state.
Israeli civilian and military officials said their plan to end the Gaza war is to establish some form of transitional authority to govern the region, possibly including Arab countries, which would return the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, which has been ruled by Hamas since 2007.
But Shtayyeh, who has been prime minister since 2019, said that the Palestinian Authority will not cooperate in this regard without implementing a real peace process that leads to the establishment of two sovereign states.
The Palestinian Prime Minister said, during an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian: “If we return to ruling Gaza and managing its affairs without finding a political solution for the West Bank, we will look as if we are entering the Gaza Strip on board an F-16 plane or an Israeli tank!”
He added: “I do not accept that, and our President Mahmoud Abbas does not accept that. “None of us will accept this.”
In the interview conducted with him in his office in Ramallah in the West Bank, Shtayyeh stressed: “I believe that what we need is a comprehensive, peaceful vision. The West Bank needs a solution, and after that Gaza should be linked to it within the framework of the two-state solution.”
Shtayyeh said that the first priority is to stop the bombing of Gaza, as well as the violence in the West Bank, where he said 110 Palestinians were killed, during the past three weeks, by Israeli security forces and settlers.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that the death toll there exceeded 8,000. US President Joe Biden questioned the accuracy of these numbers, but Shtayyeh said that the toll had been verified with names and ID numbers.
After three weeks of aerial bombardment, Israel launched a ground attack on Gaza last Friday, an attack that Israeli officials said they expected to be long and exhausting.
Shtayyeh pointed out that Israel’s need for someone else to run Gaza, instead of Hamas, gives the international community an impetus to think about the necessity of returning to the two-state solution, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu systematically addressed during his time in office.
He continued: “The question that everyone should ask, whether Palestinians, Israelis, Americans, or Europeans, is how can we make this catastrophe an opportunity for peace?”
The Palestinian Prime Minister criticized Biden’s position on the Palestinian issue, noting that he, among the American presidents who took office during the past few decades, is the only one who did not develop a peace initiative in the Middle East.
He added: “He did not even appoint a peace envoy, and he made promises that were never fulfilled. He says he opposes the settlements, but what did he do?! Continue funding Israel. He says that he is for the two-state solution, but Israel confronts this matter every day, without any reaction from Biden. He said he would reopen the American Consulate in Jerusalem…and now his term will end without him doing so!”
He continued: “I believe that now is the appropriate time for the American President and Europe to confirm their readiness to reach a comprehensive, not a partial, solution to the Palestinian issue.”
Such a comprehensive solution, according to Shtayyeh, would include holding Palestinian elections in Gaza and the West Bank, and the Israeli government abandoning Netanyahu.
There is also growing anger in the West Bank toward the Palestinian Authority, which has long faced allegations of corruption and nepotism.
After the start of the last war, many Palestinians accused it of weakness and inability to defend them.
Shtayyeh insisted that the Palestinian Authority will never abandon its opposition to the use of violence, in order to regain its popularity.
He explained: “Abbas can gain widespread popularity in one minute. He can say: Well, I order the Palestinian security forces to shoot the Israelis. But he is a realistic man.”
However, Shtayyeh acknowledged that anger is rapidly escalating among Palestinians, that the situation in the West Bank is “boiling,” and that it has become “very dangerous,” leaving the Palestinian Authority stuck between an angry population and a violent Israeli government.
He added: “We are stuck between a stone and a hammer.”
2023-10-30 14:52:59
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