Bethlehem /PNN/
Despite the pressures, President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership insist on implementing the decisions recently adopted regarding the relationship with Israel, including ending the security coordination, today said Palestinian officials.
The Palestinian leadership, in a meeting held yesterday in Ramallah and chaired by President Abbas, decided to continue working and moving at all levels to protect the interests and rights of the Palestinian people.
The leadership decided in an emergency meeting it held in Ramallah on January 26 following Israel’s major military assault on Jenin and the killing of nine Palestinians, including two children and one woman, that “In light of the repeated aggression against our people, and the undermining of signed agreements, including security, we consider that security coordination with the Israeli occupation government no longer exists as of now.”
It also decided to demand international protection for the Palestinian people, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, to continue to pursue Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and other international bodies, and to complete joining the rest of the UN and international organizations.
Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told the official Voice of Palestine radio that the leadership has rejected all the pressures exerted on it to discourage it from continuing with its international movement and retract the decisions it had recently taken, including defining the relationship with Israel and ending security coordination.
He said that the leadership's decision, which it reaffirmed last night in its expanded meeting that included the PLO and other political factions, is to continue to regulate the relationship with the occupying power, stop security coordination, not to succumb to Israeli threats, and to continue with measures to provide protection for the Palestinian people, stressing expediting steps at the ICC to hold Israel accountable for its crimes.
Saleh Raafat, also a member of the PLO Executive Committee, told Voice of Palestine that the leadership is in a constant session to follow up on its decisions and that the Palestinian position is very clear and says that Israel must stop all its crimes and unilateral measures against the Palestinians.
He said the leadership will continue to demand international protection for the Palestinian people as per United Nations resolutions.
