Abbas says PA no longer bound by Oslo agreements, security coordination with Israel

With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying he intends to annex parts of the West Bank, PA President Mahmoud Abbas says the Palestinian leadership is no longer bound by the Oslo agreements with Jerusalem, including security coordination, and says Israel is now responsible for the civilian Palestinian population.

He makes the announcement in a speech in Ramallah, saying “the Palestine Liberation Organization and the State of Palestine are absolved, as of today, of all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments and of all the commitments based on these understandings and agreements, including the security ones,” according to the official Wafa news agency.

“Second, the Israeli occupation authority, as of today, has to shoulder all responsibilities and obligations in front of the international community as an occupying power over the territory of the occupied state of Palestine, with all its consequences and repercussions based on international law and international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which holds the occupying power responsible for the protection of the civilian population under occupation and their property, criminalizes collective punishment, bans theft of resources, appropriation and annexation of land, bans forced transfer of the population of the occupied territory and bans transfer of the population of the occupying state (the colonialists) to the land it occupies, which all are grave violations and war crimes.”

Abbas has threatened to tear up all agreements with Israel on dozens of occasions. It remains unclear whether the declaration in his latest speech will be implemented.