Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee Saeb Erekat today briefed two European officials on Israel’s illegal annexation plan.
Erekat briefed Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde and the Chief of Cabinet of Belgium’s Foreign Ministry Bernard Quintin in separate phone conversations on the latest developments, with focus on Israel’s illegal plan to apply Israeli sovereignty over, or in other words to annex, the Jordan Valley and the illegal colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Erekat tweeted that his conversations with the European diplomats focused on rejecting the illegal annexation plan, cessation of Israeli colonial settlement construction in the West Bank, implementing the two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders in line with international law.
He also stressed the importance of ongoing support to the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and international cooperation to battle the novel coronavirus spread.
He expressed his appreciation of Sweden’s recognition of the State of Palestine and expressed his hopes that other states worldwide would follow the example of Sweden.
On July 1, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, will be able to vote on the annexation of large swaths of the West Bank on the basis of the US-touted Mideast plan, dubbed deal of the century, which in fact endorses Israel’s longstanding policy of permanent occupation, colonialism and apartheid over the Palestinian people.
Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu has declared many times his willingness to annex the illegal colonial settlements besides to the Jordan Valley, a fertile strip of land running west along the Jordan River, which is home of some 65,000 Palestinians and makes up approximately 30 percent of the West Bank, upon the formation of the new coalition government.
The annexation of Palestinian territory occupied in 1967 is illegal under international law, and it would put much of the occupied West Bank under Israeli sovereignty, leaving only a few small pockets of densely populated Palestinian bantustans.
