Palestinians could retract Israel recognition, PA official warns
Former negotiator Saeb Erekat says Israel’s failure to live up to Oslo agreements may lead to their cancellation
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The Palestinians’ former top peace negotiator said that Palestinian leaders were considering withdrawing their past recognition of Israel.
In an interview published Thursday by al-Quds al-Arabi, Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the PLO’s recognition of Israel ahead of the 1993 Oslo accords may be canceled over what he described as Israel’s failure to live up to its end of the agreements.
As the accords are signed between Israel and the PLO, withdrawing recognition of Israel could constitute a pullout from the Oslo process itself, leaving the Palestinian Authority in legal and diplomatic limbo.
Erekat noted that the last meetings of the Palestinian National Council and the PLO executive committee called for reexamining the PLO’s security and defense relationship with Israel.
A decision on such a shift will come at the end of November, he said, after PA President Mahmoud Abbas holds a round of meetings with Arab leaders.
Abbas is slated to meet Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi on Sunday, and to attend the Arab League meeting in Saudi Arabia later in the week.
The Abbas-Sissi meeting is expected to focus on easing the Egyptian blockade on Gaza and to deal with Egypt’s insistence on a return to Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The Times of Israel Community.