December 26, 2011

On Monday, PLO official Mohammed Eshtayeh said the Palestinian Authority (PA) might cancel its 1993 recognition of the state of Israel if a peace agreement could not be reached.

Eshtayeh made the comment in an interview the London-based Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, calling the recognition of Israel "an unbalanced one."

Eshtaiyeh also said that the PLO recognized Israel in 1993 "geographically."

"However," he continued, "Israel did not recognize Palestine geographically, but only as an institution. It only recognized the PLO. We now ask for a mutual recognition: we want Israel to recognize Palestine on the 1967 borders."

Eshtayehh also said that if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was determined to say there is no difference between the illegal settlement of Har Homa and Tel Aviv, then Palestinians would not differentiate between Ramallah and Jaffa.

According to Eshtayeh, Palestinian efforts from now on would concentrate on internal issues, saying, "Mahmoud Abbas is interested in uniting Palestinians."

Eshtayeh, part of the Palestinian negotiating team, also talked about the possibility to canceling the Oslo agreements, just days after Hamas and the Islamic Jihad agreed to join the PLO and prepare for May elections for the main two bodies of the organization, the Palestinian National Council and the Executive Committee.

PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi said no formal position about recognition of Israel had been decided.

Ashrawi told the "Voice of Palestine" radio that withdrawal of recognition was a last option if Israel made no progress towards peace. She said that first legal responses must be formulated to Israel’s expansion of settlements and Judaization of Jerusalem. Ashrawi also said that Palestinians must work on civil resistance projects in Jerusalem.

Source