Palestinians Stress Necessity of Dismantling Jewish Settlements

A senior Palestinian official on Thursday reaffirmed the necessity of dismantling all the Jewish settlements built in the Palestinian territories.

Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazan, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization made the remark in an interview with the Voice of Palestine radio.

"The dismantlement of all the Jewish settlements built in the Palestinian territories after June 4, 1967, is a stance adopted by the Palestinian leadership and the issue will be raised during final-status talks with the Israeli side," he said.

He reiterated a call for halting all Jewish settlement activities carried out by Israel under the pretext of "natural growth."

"Such activities are illegal and should be uprooted in all Palestinian territories as similar settlements were dismantled in Egypt's Sinai peninsula," he said.

"Our demand is a freeze on the settlement activities in the interim stage and a total halt in the final stage," he added.

"We aim to restore a 100 percent of the West Bank and Gaza Strip territories," he said, adding that "We will never give up an inch of our lands."

Since Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast War, Israel has set up over 140 settlements in the occupied territories.

As for his recent talks with the U.S. officials on the Mitchell report, he said that "We made clear our position on the Mitchell findings."

The report, released on Monday by the international fact-finding committee led by U.S. former senator George Mitchell, called for a freeze on settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and an immediate and unconditional end to the violence.

But, Sharon said in response to the report that there was no link between a settlement freeze and a cessation of violence, adding that the settlements were Israel's "national assets" and the government will continue to work to cater to their needs, namely to build homes to meet the so-called needs of "natural growth."

"Despite our notes on the findings, we accepted the report as a whole as it dealt with major issues, including Palestinian-Israeli security cooperation, lifting economic closures on the Palestinian territories, putting an end to settlement construction, solving all differences based on interim agreements, and the resumption of final-status talks," he said.

"Negotiations on such issues need fixed timetable and can not be carried out separately," he said, stressing the necessity of setting up a mechanism to observe and implement the agreements.

"We informed leaders of the United States and United Nations of our position," he said, adding that "The United Nations approved the findings in its capacity as a partner of the international fact-finding commission and the United States also approved the Mitchell report."

Asked about the Israeli stance on the report, Abu Mazan said: "The Israeli side took one reservation on the report's call for a total freeze on the settlement activities."

"We are waiting for the result of the U.S. efforts, especially after the U.S. administration decided to send a new envoy to the Middle East to work out a plan for the implementation of the the recommendations made by the report," he said.

On the Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people, he said that the ongoing violence was not initiated by the Palestinians, and the Palestinian side did not pursue it.

However, the Israeli army launched attacks against the Palestinian people by using all kinds of weapons, in addition to political assassination, demolition of houses, and killing of innocent people, he added.

"Security for all can not be reached without cooperation of all parties. Such an issue can not be separated from other issues including the economy, settlements, and the interim stage and the final-status talks," he said.

He also underlined the importance of the U.S. role in pushing forward the Middle East peace process.

He said that the seriousness of the U.S. side in solving the crisis will be examined in the coming days, adding the Palestinian side hopes that the U.S. will not remain biased in favor of Israel.

On an Egyptian-Jordanian peace initiative, he said said it and the Mitchell report constitute a package of principles and fundamental rules for the coming political move, adding that there is no need to seek new ideas.






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