“Netanyahu’s Comments make it clear he is against establishment of Palestinian states” – Saeb Erakat

Anita uzuazor
Jerusalem
(AFP) –
Comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum make it
clear he is against the establishment of a
Palestinian state, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb
Erakat has said.
"Anyone who says they want the settlers to remain
is actually saying they don't want the
establishment of a Palestinian state," Erakat said in
remarks published Monday in Palestinian daily Al-
Ayyam.
Erakat was reacting to comments by Netanyahu at
last week's WEF gathering in Davos, where the
premier insisted Israel would not evacuate Jewish
settlements built on occupied land the Palestinians
want for their future state.
Netanyahu has publicly supported the two-state
solution during US-sponsored talks which envisage
the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a final
peace agreement.
But at Davos, the premier told Israeli journalists at
a briefing, "I have said before and I say again; I do
not intend to dismantle any settlement, I don't
intend to uproot any Israeli."
His comments were broadcast on public radio.
Palestinian laborers work at the construction site of
a new housing project in the Jewish settlement …
Israel's settlements, which are illegal under
international law, are a key sticking point that is
preventing peace talks from making any visible
progress.
Some Israeli media said that Netanyahu was
speaking in response to a question specifically
about the Jordan Valley, the part of the occupied
West Bank bordering Jordan.
Israel insists on maintaining a long-term military
presence in the Jordan Valley as a buffer against
attacks on the Jewish state, while the Palestinians
want an international security force deployed there
for their own security.
But angry Israeli hardliners on Monday linked
Netanyahu's Davos comments to a report by an
international news agency that the premier is
floating the idea of existing settlements being
leased from the Palestinians in a future Palestinian
state.
"We do not leave settlers behind enemy lines,"
deputy defence minister Danny Danon, a hawkish
member of Netanyahu's own Likud party, told army
radio.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
addresses the World Economic Forum in Davos on
January
"It's an idea of leaving Jews, abandoning Jews to
the control of the Palestinians," deputy foreign
minister Zeev Elkin, also of Likud, told the station.
"It's a red line, contrary to the beliefs of the
national camp, the beliefs of the Likud," he said.
Settler leader Dani Danon told AFP that the concept
of settlements no longer being under Israeli
sovereignty was a "political, security and Zionist
aberration."
Veteran political analyst Shimon Shiffer said that
the news agency report, which Netanyahu's office
neither confirms nor denies, was a deliberate
attempt to draw a hostile response from the
Palestinians, painting them as rejecting peace.
"Netanyahu… is trying to push the settlers into a
corner and challenge the Palestinian side, knowing
that the latter will reply with a resounding
negative," he wrote in the top-selling Yediot
Aharonot newspaper.
Maariv's Shalom Yerushalmi suggested that the
premier was playing for time.
"The settlements will certainly be removed, but the
prime minister will not be the one to remove
them," he wrote.
"This will be a gradual process in any case, and by
the time we reach the removal of the settlements
Netanyahu will no longer be there."

Sent From David Aniemeka