JERICHO, August 30, 2018 (WAFA) – No one can remove the files of Jerusalem, refugees and settlements from any future negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel, said Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), on Thursday.

He was referring to statements by US President Donald that after he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and not recognizing the right of five million Palestinian refugees for return to their homes they were force out from after Israel was created in 1948 on their land, these issues are now off the negotiations table.

Erekat told foreign lawmakers and diplomats he met with separately at his Jericho office that attempts by the Trump administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to liquidate the Palestinian cause through their dictates will not succeed and are doomed to failure.

“There will be no peace without East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, without resolving the refugees’ issue in all its aspects as per United Nations Resolution 194 and before recognizing that all Israeli colonial settlements are illegal,” Erekat told his guests.

The PLO official called on the international community to reject the attempts of the US administration to abolish the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and to preserve it and provide it with the financial support it needs to fulfill its responsibilities towards the Palestinian refugees until their cause is resolved in all its aspects, as stipulated in UN General Assembly Resolution 302 of 1949 establishing UNRWA.

Erekat stressed that Palestinian reconciliation is a focal point in the Palestinian strategy, explaining that it will be impossible to face and foil the American so-called deal of the century without national unity on the ground.

M.K.