Ramallah, January 28 (RHC)-- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has adamantly dismissed as a “conspiracy” Washington’s so-called peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Abbas made the remark on Tuesday as he warned U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Palestinian people's rights were "not for sale.”
"I say to Trump and Netanyahu: Jerusalem is not for sale, all our rights are not for sale and are not looking for a bargain. And your deal, the conspiracy, will not pass," Abbas said in a televised address in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
The Palestinian president also warned that the people of Palestine would never accept Trump’s proposal, saying: "What should I wait for? If Jerusalem is not part of it (a Palestinian state) will we accept a State without Jerusalem? It is impossible for any Palestinian, Muslim or Christian child to accept this. Therefore, we told them from the beginning, NO!"
Abbas’s remarks in Ramallah came after a meeting with Palestinian factions including the resistance movements of Fatah and Hamas, which both rejected the plan. Hamas said it would confront Trump's "aggressive" proposals and accused him of talking "nonsense" about Jerusalem al-Quds.
"This is our land and this is our capital, we will not accept any alternative, we will not accept only part of it nor part out of it. Jerusalem is Palestine's capital and we don't care about Trump. Jerusalem will stay ours with all its churches, al-Aqsa mosque and all the sacred sites," said Khalil al-Hayya, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau.
Earlier in the day, Trump repeated his highly controversial endorsement of occupied Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s “undivided capital” as he outlined his administration’s self-styled plan for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which Palestinians have already dismissed.
Defying international outcry, Trump announced the general provisions of the plan he calls “The Deal of the Century” at the White House with the Israeli premier at his side. He endorsed his contentious recognition in December 2017 of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s “capital,” a move he took in the face of Palestinian demands that the holy city should serve as the capital of their future state. He said the plan envisages the city as the Israeli regime’s “undivided capital.”
The so-called peace plan is widely expected to take the US’s pro-Israeli brinksmanship to a whole new level, with various reports warning that it seeks to lay the groundwork for Israel’s annexation of about half of the West Bank, which the regime occupied in 1967, including most of the Jordan Valley.
Thousands of Palestinians protested in Gaza, and people across the West Bank and Jerusalem voiced their objection and anger over the contentious plan. Local reports said 13 Palestinians had been injured by Israeli forces during protests against the U.S. president’s so-called peace plan in the occupied West Bank.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu is reportedly due to call on his cabinet to approve on Sunday Israel's annexation of parts of the West Bank. The annexation would include the occupied Jordan Valley and the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory of the West Bank.
