Abbas: I Agreed to Meet Netanyahu, but Israel Never Responded
Palestinian president tells Israeli journalists of direct contacts with Israel; Prime Minister's Office denies claims.
Jack Khoury and Barak Ravid Jan 21, 2016 9:47 PM
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Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, gestures as he speaks
during a press conference, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Jan. 6,
2016.AP
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Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday evening that there have been
contacts in recent months to set up a meeting between him and Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but that he has yet to get a response from
the Israeli side.
Speaking to a
group of Israeli journalists, Abbas said that during informal contacts
between the staffers of the two leaders, the idea of such a meeting was
raised and he agreed.
“I agreed
and appointed two people to prepare for the meeting with Netanyahu, but
since then they haven’t gotten back to us,” he said. The contacts about
the meeting were direct, without American intervention, Abbas added.
The
Prime Minister's Office denied Abbas' claims. "This is an attempt by
Abu Mazen (Abbas) to avoid taking responsibility for the lack of
negotiations. Even today in Davos, Netanyahu called on Abu Mazen to
[resume] negotiations without preconditions.
The
Palestinian president reiterated that the opening of negotiations with
Israel would have to be based on two principles: a full construction
freeze in West Bank settlements while talks were going on, and the
release of the fourth group of prisoners incarcerated since before the
Oslo Accords, who were meant to be freed in 2014.
“These
are not preconditions,” Abbas said. “These are understandings we
already had between us and Netanyahu didn’t want to fulfill them.”
Abbas
said that low-level contacts between the two sides continue and
security coordination is also proceeding as of that minute, as he put
it, adding he could not promise what would be in the future.
Addressing
the attacks Hamas is planning, Abbas said that Palestinian security
forces are doing all they can to preserve Palestinian security first and
foremost, but also to prevent the violence from sliding toward the
Israeli side.
He said that
security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israel had
to be mutual, but that Israel was continuously violating it with daily
raids of homes and arrests. “Two weeks ago there was an incident in
which they almost reached my home and ran into my bodyguards,” Abbas
said. “What kind of coordination is that?”
Referring
to the wave of violence over the past few months, Abbas said he opposes
violence per se as well as bloodshed, and that he had always supported a
popular, nonviolent struggle.
“I
am against every drop of unjustified blood and against murder for no
reason; we believe this and these are our values and what the Koran
says,” Abbas said. He said several times that he is against any type of
extremism, including religious extremism, whether it be Muslim, Jewish
or Christian. “We must not turn the conflict into a religious struggle
because that’s dangerous and it gives an opportunity for terror elements
in the Arab world to lead a religious conflict and we don’t want that,”
he said.
Asked by Haaretz about
the PA plans to push through an anti-settlement resolution in the UN
Security Council and when such a process might be launched, Abbas said
the Palestinians are adopting resolutions by the international community
that do not accept the settlement enterprise, which is why the
Palestinians are seeking a condemnation of the settlements and
international protection against Israeli violence.
As
for the timetable, Abbas said that an Arab League-sponsored committee
including Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, along with the Arab
League secretary-general and the PA, is preparing proposals, and last
week there was a meeting in Cairo to coordinate things. The committee,
he said, would decide on when to submit draft resolutions to the
Security Council. Abbas said the Obama administration had not given him
any indication as to the American position and whether it would veto
such a resolution.
Abbas added
that he did not expect any new initiatives by the United States, which
is why the PA leadership thinks an international conference is needed.
He
stressed that the Palestinian Authority has been an achievement for the
Palestinian people and that there was no plan to dissolve it, but a
great deal depended on Israel. “We want the PA as an opening toward the
establishment of a Palestinian state, but if Israel continues its policy
of incursions and attacks on Palestinians and blocks any move toward
progress on the diplomatic horizon then Israel essentially doesn’t want
the PA and wants to dismantle it.”
Abbas
said that he was not planning to resign, but if for whatever reason he
cannot function, Fatah and the PLO institutions have a clear succession
mechanism. Just as he ran for office and was elected, he said, anyone
can do the same, including Marwan Barghouti, a member of the Fatah
central committee, who is in an Israeli prison serving five life terms
for the murder of Israelis.
Jack Khoury
Haaretz Correspond
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-
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