PLO Executive Committee Secretary: USA bears full responsibility for annexation

“PLO Executive Committee Secretary [and Fatah Central Committee member] Saeb Erekat said that the leadership will hold a meeting this Thursday [May 14, 2020] led by [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas in order to declare a complete plan and complete strategy in response to the Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank.

In statements he gave yesterday evening to [the official PA radio station] The Voice of Palestine, Erekat placed on the American administration full responsibility for every step that Israel takes on this matter. He emphasized that the statements of American Ambassador in Tel Aviv (sic., in Jerusalem) David Friedman, who said that ‘A Palestinian state will be established when the Palestinians become Canadians’ (see note below –Ed.), are unprecedented insolence from a dogmatic man who encourages violence, murder, and settlement…

Regarding the statements of International Criminal Court (ICC) General Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who emphasized the neutrality of the investigation regarding Palestine, Erekat said that this will lead to the launching of legal investigations of senior Israeli officials who have committed war crimes against the Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem. Erekat noted that the goal of the Israeli attacks inciting against the ICC is to cause the world to be silent so that their crimes will pass without criticism, and without them being required to give an accounting.”

Saeb Erekat also serves as Fatah Central Committee member and PLO Chief NegotiatorSaeb Erekat also serves as Fatah Central Committee member and PLO Chief Negotiator

In an interview with the Israeli paper Israel Hayom published May 8, 2020, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said: “[People on the Right] say they can't agree to a Palestinian state, because the Palestinian state will be a terrorist state will continue to threaten Israel, will continue to incite, pay terrorists, we can't live with them. I understand them, but [we are saying] you don't have to live with that Palestinian state, you have to live with the Palestinian state when the Palestinians become Canadians. And when the Palestinians become Canadians all your issues should go away. We are not going for the approach – and we're serious – [that] administrations in the past [have, when they] were willing to overlook the risks of living side by side with the Palestinians. The difference between us and everybody else is we don't give anybody a pass. If they can't achieve those milestones in the plan, we will be the last ones to encourage Israel. We have no interest in recognizing any state that doesn't reach those milestones anywhere around the world, [we will not recognize a state] that's going to be a terrorist state or a theocracy or one that glorifies terrorism, we don't want it for us, let alone Israel.”