RAMALLAH, March 18, 2011 (WAFA) – The PLO’s Central Council Friday expressed support for President Mahmoud Abbas’ initiative to travel to Gaza to bring reconciliation and unity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

It also said in a statement issued at the conclusion of two days of meetings that there will absolutely be no negotiations with Israel before the latter stops all settlement activities.

Abbas addressed the opening session of the council meeting on Wednesday where he announced his initiative to go to Gaza to put together a government of independents to prepare for presidential and legislative elections.

The council also rejected a provisional state with temporary borders and “all temporary and partial solutions that aim to bypass the right of our people to regain its land and national independence.”

It condemned the killing of an Israeli family in the settlement of Itamar in the West Bank, and also condemned what it described as “the vicious information and political campaign by the (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu government to hold the (Palestinian0 leadership responsible for this crime.”

It also condemned “the Israeli army and settlers’ attacks on our people in the village of Awarta and other areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.” It called on the international community “to condemn the systematic and daily Israeli state terrorism of the settlers and soldiers while the world is watching.”

It called on the signatories of the Fourth Geneva Convention to convene to discuss the Israeli violations of these agreements and to force Israel to stop them.

The Central Council called for elections for the Palestinian National Council, the PLO’s parliament-in-exile, to coincide with presidential and legislative elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

M.A.