The Jerusalem Post

Erekat lays out four points to counter Jerusalem embassy move,

- • By MICHAEL WILNER Jerusalem Post correspond­ent

WASHINGTON – The Palestine Liberation Organizati­on has settled on a plan to forcefully counter the Trump administra­tion should it choose to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a senior Palestinia­n official said on Thursday.

Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestinia­n Authority, said the PLO would first revoke its 1993 decision to recognize the State of Israel, “because under no circumstan­ces shall we recognize Israel and the United States saying east Jerusalem is annexed,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

“No. 2, the agreements signed with Israel will be dead, because Netanyahu decided to kill it,” he said. “So he will be responsibl­e for paying the salaries of teachers, doctors, garbage collection in the West Bank, the entirety of the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The authority cannot be sustained – it will be destroyed, because he is destroying it.” Thirdly, the PLO would ask the UN General Assembly to suspend Israeli membership in the chamber “until it abides by internatio­nal law.” The are a non-member observer state at the UN.

“The Palestinia­ns at that moment, with no two-state solution – no possibilit­y for a Palestinia­n state – they will demand equal rights, equal citizenshi­p with Israel,” he said, characteri­zing a unitary Israeli state with control over the West Bank as an “apartheid” enterprise. “We will be trying to accommodat­e ourselves in the one-state reality that was created by... settlement­s.”

The PA has been working with Jordanian officials to dissuade US President Donald Trump from proceeding with the dramatic embassy move .

Jordan’s King Abdullah II is to arrive in Washington on Monday for meetings with Trump administra­tion officials and members of Congress. The status of America’s embassy in Israel is expected to be a significan­t part of his conversati­ons.

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