The Palestine Liberation Organization Central Council on Monday called for the Palestinian Authority to halt all security cooperation with Israel and to terminate its recognition of Israel until Israel recognizes the Palestinian Authority as a Palestinian state.
The ultimate decision as to whether that policy will be adopted was left with P.A. head Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO Executive Committee. The PLO Central Council has decided in the past that it will cease to recognize Israel and to cease coordination, but Abbas never adopted the decisions.
Abbas has been outspoken in his animosity towards Israel in recent months and has rejected any cooperation with the American Middle East negotiation team headed by Jason Greenblatt and senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner.
“You transferred the embassy to Jerusalem, you destroyed the rights of the refugees and UNRWA, and you said that there are only 40,000 refugees,” Abbas cried, referring to the United States. “Your house will be destroyed—40,000 Palestinians? In 1948, 950,000 refugees left Palestine. Today, they are 6 million. You say 40,000? You only say this to eliminate the refugee problem.”
Among Abbas’s demands is the recognition of all those who fled Israel during the 1948 War of Independence, their children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren as refugees entitled to Israeli citizenship and lands. However, international law only confers refugee status on those individuals who personally fled countries during war time, and does not allow the passage of that status to descendants.
Abbas has also rejected various permutations of a Palestinian state, including one in Gaza.
“I again stress that no state will be established in Gaza, no state will be established without Gaza, and no state will be established with temporary borders,” he said.
