Abbas denounces US-Israel agreement allowing scientific co-op in West Bank

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemns the US-Israel agreement to extend scientific cooperation to areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, which some see as as a first step toward American recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank.

“This is a dangerous and unacceptable precedent, regard which we cannot stay silent,” Abbas’s official spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh says.

“We reject this American policy which attempts to help Israel consolidate its occupation of Palestinian lands. None of these policies will give any legitimacy to anyone. The settlements will one day disappear,” Abu Rudeineh adds.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the bilateral deal “a victory over all the organizations and countries that boycott Judea and Samaria,” using the Biblical term for the West Bank.

— Aaron Boxerman