RAMALLAH, June 25, 2018 (WAFA) – Referring to East Jerusalem as an occupied city on the program of the visit by Britain’s Prince William is realistic and true, Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said on Monday.

He told Voice of Palestine radio that referring to the West Bank and specifically East Jerusalem as occupied territory has political connotations and reflects the position of the entire world, except for the new, condemned and unacceptable position of the American administration.

Erekat, welcomed the visit of Prince William to Palestine and said he is scheduled to meet with President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Wednesday.

The PLO official expressed hope that with Prince William’s visit, Britain will now stand on the right side of history and act to stop the US from giving any legitimacy to the 50-year long Israeli occupation.

"We have tried more than once with Britain to get it to apologize for what happened to the Palestinian people because of the infamous Balfour Declaration asking it to assume its responsibilities in this regard. But what we are trying to do now is to get Britain on the right side of history by acting to build the largest possible front against the American slap of the century,” he said in reference to the so-called US deal of the century for a settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Erekat said that the latest visit of US envoy Jared Kushner to the region has failed.

He said Kushner tried to market Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s old products in new packaging, but he found out that only Netanyahu is going along with him while all the Arab countries he visited stressed to him the Palestinian position that there is no solution and no security and stability without the establishment of an independent and fully sovereign Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

M.K.