Palestinians threaten to declare statehood

Say if Israel executes its plan, they will take steps to create governing bodies

Palestinians will declare an independent state and take steps on the ground to create governing institutions should Israel go ahead with plans to annex parts of the West Bank, according to Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.

He said that they proposed a demilitarised Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem with one-toone land exchanges with Israel as a counteroffer to President Donald Trump’s Mideast plan.

“If Israel is going to annex after July 1, we are going to go from an interim period of the Palestinian [National] Authority [PNA] into manifestation of a state on the ground,” Shtayyeh said.

Counter proposal to US plan

“We will call on the international community to recognise this fact.” Shtayyeh said that a founding council would be named and a constitution declared if annexation went ahead.

The Palestinians wrote a counterproposal to the US peace plan and gave it to the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators a few days ago, he said.

Palestinians said yesterday they proposed a demilitarised Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and occupied east Jerusalem with one-to-one land exchanges with Israel as a counteroffer to President Donald Trump’s Mideast plan.

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh declined to provide further details about the proposal but said the Palestinian position on major issues is well-known. He said the plan was submitted in recent days to the Quartet of Mideast mediators — the US, the UN, the European Union and Russia.

“Our people are ready for sacrifices,” Shtayyeh said.

Existential threat

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank in line with the Trump plan, which would give the Palestinians limited statehood in a cluster of disjointed enclaves if they meet a long list of conditions. Israel is expected to begin the annexation process as soon as July 1.

Shtayyeh told reporters that annexation is an “existential threat” that would mark the “total erosion of our national aspirations.” The Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories Israel seized in the 1967 war.

Shtayyeh said it would be a “demilitarised state’’ and that the Palestinians would accept “minor border modification’’ and the exchange of territory equivalent “in size, in volume and in value.’’

He said the Palestinian leadership would not give in to Israeli demands that they resume contacts in order to facilitate the monthly transfer of some $150 million in taxes and customs that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians. That’s a crucial source of income for the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank.

Shtayyeh said Israel could continue to make the transfers without any direct contacts. “We are not ready to accept any blackmail. The issue here is not money for politics.”