The Palestinian National Council (PNC) at the end of its 23rd session on Thursday confirmed its rejection of the US president Donald Trump’s “illegal” decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The PNC called in its meeting which was held without national consensus in Ramallah for ending security coordination and all forms of economic dependence on Israel.
The PNC which re-elected the PA president Mahmoud Abbas as the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization asked in its concluding statement the Executive Committee to suspend its recognition of Israel until the latter recognizes the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders and halt the settlement construction.
The statement also called for activating the 1980 Amman Summit’s resolution which obliges the Arab countries to sever diplomatic relations with any state that recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and stick to the Arab Peace Initiative.
The PNC announced that the transitional period stipulated in the agreements signed in Oslo Washington and Cairo no longer exists stressing that the relation between the Palestinians and the Israelis is only seen as a conflict between an occupying power and people under occupation.
It stressed that ending the internal division and handing the Gaza Strip administration to the PA government must be a top priority ignoring the fact that the PA government insists on evading its responsibilities toward the Gaza Strip provided in the Cairo agreement signed between Fatah and Hamas in October 2017.
Abbas announced during the PNC meeting the new list of the Executive Committee’s members which included Abbas himself in addition to six old members and eight new ones.
The meeting witnessed protests by some members over the way the committee was chosen without elections.
At the end of the PNC meeting Abbas decided to resume the payments of Gaza employees as of Friday claiming that halting the salaries was not part of new sanctions imposed on Gaza.
Over the past four days the PNC held its 23rd session in Ramallah despite the boycott announced by Hamas the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as well as many Palestinian figures and forces.
The last regular session of the PNC was held in 1996 while an emergency session was held in 2009 to fill six vacancies for members of the Executive Committee.
