Palestinian PM: We will declare state – for real this time – if Israel annexes

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh tells the foreign press that if Israel goes ahead with annexation, Ramallah will declare a Palestinian state.

Shtayyeh says the Palestinians will establish a “foundational council” so they can transition from “a temporary authority” to “the establishment of a state on the ground.”

The Palestinians have declared statehood numerous times since 1988, consider themselves a state on official communiques and have pushed for international recognition of the basis of statehood, making Shtayyeh’s threat somewhat perplexing, and casting doubt on whether the Palestinians themselves actually believe they are a state.

The threat of creating a state, with all its trappings, also seemingly runs counter to a claim made to the New York Times by Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official and close adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, that said the Palestinian Authority will stop providing civil services to Palestinians in the case of annexation.

During that interview al-Sheikh also hinted that the PA does not consider Israel to be an occupying power in some of the West Bank.

“Either they backtrack on annexation and things go back to how they were, or they follow through with annexation and they go back to being the occupying power in the whole West Bank,” he said.