Netanyahu will OK more settlements, Abbas warns
Palestinians have long complained that Israel’s right-wing government is killing peace prospects by settling the West Bank with Jews, but now there is something new. The Palestinian president is warning that Benjamin Netanyahu’s expected victory in next week’s election could lead to an Arab-majority country in the Holy Land that will eventually replace what is now Israel — unless he pursues a more moderate path of a two-state solution to the conflict.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been careful not to intervene in Tuesday’s Israeli election, but it is no secret that the Palestinians hope that Netanyahu will either be ousted or at least soften his position in a new term. He has shown no sign of doing so, and opinion polls showing hard-line, prosettlement parties well ahead days ahead of the vote have led to a sense of despair among the Palestinians.
During Netanyahu’s current term, the Israeli leader has pressed forward with construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel
“We Palestinians will be the majority and will struggle for equality.”
MOHAMMED ISHTAYEH
captured from Jordan along with the Gaza Strip in 1967. Abbas says he wants to set up a state in the territories that would exist peacefully next to Israel.
The international community considers settlement construction illegal or illegitimate. And the Palestinians have refused to negotiate with Netanyahu while he continues to allow settlements to be built, saying it is a sign of bad faith.
Israeli backers of the creation of a Palestinian state say relinquishing control of the Palestinian territories and its residents is the only way to ensure Israel’s future as a democracy with a Jewish majority.
Mohammed Ishtayeh, a top aide to Abbas, said Friday his boss has been warning that won’t be possible if settlement building continues and Israel could end up with a Jewish minority ruling over an Arab majority.
He warned Israel could end up with “an apartheid-style state, similar to the one of former South Africa.”
“In the long run, it will be against the Israeli interests because … we Palestinians will be the majority and will struggle for equality,” Ishtayeh said, adding that Abbas had repeated this message in meetings with several Israeli leaders in the past year.
Under Netanyahu, construction reportedly began on nearly 6,900 settlement homes in the West Bank. Netanyahu defended his position on settlements Friday in an interview with Channel 1 TV.
“I don’t believe that settlements are the root of the conflict, I don’t believe that territorial dimensions are the root of the conflict; the root of the conflict was and remains the refusal to recognize the Jewish state within any border,” Netanyahu said. “I am not in favour of a binational state. We need to reach a solution. I don’t want to rule the Palestinians and I don’t want them to rule us and threaten our existence.”