PA wants Obama to pressure Israel on goodwill gestures
'The only thing needed is to set a clear timetable for an Israeli withdrawal,' says Saeb Erekat
US President Barack Obama will be asked during his Thursday Ramallah visit to pressure Israel into making gestures of goodwill to the Palestinian Authority.
Among the gestures Ramallah is to request will be the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, the transfer of additional land to PA control and the handing over of armored vehicles donated to the PA by Russia, a source close to PA President Mahmoud Abbas told Israel Radio Tuesday morning.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly was already considering offering a package of goodwill gestures to coincide with Obama’s visit. A Maariv report earlier this month said that Israel’s defense establishment has drawn up a package that includes the transfer of authority over two access roads — one to the new Palestinian city Rawabi, and the other to the West Bank city of Tulkarem — to full Palestinian control, the approval of building plans for 10 Palestinian villages currently deemed illegal and under threat of being demolished, the release of many of the 123 Fatah prisoners arrested by Israel before the Oslo peace talks and the transfer of small arms ammunition to Palestinian security forces.
Top Palestinan negotiator Saeb Erekat said Tuesday night that there was no need for Obama to bring a new initiative to the region, nor was it necessary to arrange a summit meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PA head Mahmoud Abbas. “The only thing needed is to set a clear timetable for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders,” Erekat told al-Arabiya.
Israel Radio reported that Palestinian sources confirmed that Obama will not be visiting former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s grave during his West Bank visit. Obama is scheduled to arrive at the Mt. Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem on Friday and visit the graves of Theodore Herzl and former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
On Tuesday, the PA issued a ban on releasing photos and videos from the West Bank city of Hebron, in order to prevent images of anti-Obama protests from making the international media.
Hebron residents are reportedly opposed to the US president’s visit and the PA is attempting to avoid embarrassment over displays in the city.
Earlier on Tuesday, dozens of Palestinian protesters held an anti-American demonstration in Ramallah.
Demonstrators held an image of Obama dressed in IDF uniform with a tank in the background and the words “No Hope,” while others waved shoes in the air. In Arabic culture, throwing a shoe at someone is considered an act of ultimate disrespect.
A heavy Palestinian Authority police presence prevented the demonstrators from marching from Manara Square, in the center of the city, to the president’s residence in the Muqata’a, according to Palestinian media sources and the protesters themselves, some of whom were tweeting under the hashtag #ObamaOut.
On Monday, Palestinians vandalized a banner bearing President Obama’s image. They tore it down, hurled shoes at it and spray-painted it with swastikas. An Associated Press TV video showed a taxi driving over the banner before it was set on fire in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Monday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.