Arguments rage over future of Palestinian Authority
As the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah considers how to respond to the Israeli annexation plan, leading figures have insisted that the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority (PA) is not an option, as the PA represents “a national achievement and the nucleus of the future Palestinian state.”
Nabil Shaath, the personal representative of President Mahmoud Abbas and his adviser on international relations who was one of the architects of the Oslo Accords that set up the Palestinian Authority in 1993, is considered one of the Palestinian leaders most committed to the survival of PA.
Asked if the leadership was considering dissolving the PA, Shaath said: “This option is unacceptable and we do not think about it at all. What is required instead is to work to strengthen it vis-a-vis the United States and Israel.”
The annexation was approved by plan, which the Israeli
BACKGROUND Nabil Shaath did not rule out the outbreak of a new intifada as one of the Palestinian tools to counter Israel’s annexation plan.
government with American support, targets about 30 percent of the West Bank. Analysts say it would totally destroy the “two-state solution” and the Palestinian dream of establishing an independent state on the territories occupied in 1967.
Shaath believed that the Palestinian people have many other tools at their disposal to respond to the plan.
“With the decision to cancel agreements with Israel and US, we as Palestinians entered a new stage of the struggle, which includes the struggle to isolate Israel in all international forums and to promote the boycott of Israel so it pays the price for its policies of annexation,” he said. Shaath did not rule out the outbreak of a new intifada as one of the Palestinian tools, and said if Israel insisted on its plan, which he described as “criminal colonialism,” there were no “rules for confrontation and resistance.”
He is betting that White House foreign policy will change this year, with a Democrat victory in the presidential elections leading to a rejection of Netanyahu’s policies.