TEL AVIV – Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat on Thursday charged the Trump administration’s peace proposal with being a “copy paste” of a deal offered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2012, and added the recently unveiled plan is essentially President Donald Trump’s and Netanyahu’s saying “you lost, we won.”
“If I have to recognize you as Jewish state, and Jerusalem as your capital,” Erekat, who is the PLO’s chief negotiator, told Ynet radio, “where did you defeat me in any battle?
“These are terms of surrender,” he said.
Trump’s plan proposes the establishment of a contiguous but demilitarized Palestinian state on most of the West Bank with parts of eastern Jerusalem that are outside the Israeli security fence as its capital and conditional of Palestinian recognition of Israel as the Jewish state.
Jerusalem would remain undivided and under Israeli control.
“This is a copy and paste of Netanyahu’s plan from 2012,” Erekat charged.
“This is Trump and Netanyahu saying, ‘listen you palestinians, we have defeated you,'” he said.
The plan, he said, “has put you and your children and my children in harm’s way.”
“You need peace in Israel more than I do,” he added.
Erekat made a similar claim on Wednesday to Channel 12, saying the proposal was the same offered by Netanyahu’s “council of settlers”under then-president Barack Obama and his secretary of state John Kerry’s bid for negotiations.
“I can assure you that the U.S. team did not write a single word or comma in this plan. I have the protocols and I am willing to reveal to you what we were offered. This is the plan of Netanyahu and the council of the settlers. What opportunity is this? It’s a sad day for Israelis and Palestinians,” he told Channel 12.
“Nobody benefits more from signing a peace agreement with Israel, two states along the 1967 borders with land swaps, more than the Palestinians.”
“You have a Prime Minister with three indictments, we have a deposed president, we know the internal politics. I don’t want to stick my nose into your internal affairs, but all I do is I say – the Palestinians and Israelis deserve more,” he said.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rejected the plan outright.
“This conspiracy deal will not pass. Our people will take it to the dustbin of history,” Abbas said.
Arab states including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, and the UAE welcomed the proposal, hailing it as a “just” solution for the Palestinian people.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.