RAMALLAH, August 15, 2018 (WAFA) – The Arab Palestinian Front (APF), a member in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said on Wednesday that participation in the Palestinian Central Council meeting that is supposed to kick off its 29th round on Wednesday evening in Ramallah, is a national obligation.
It urged that factions that have decided to boycott the meeting to attend it because “the conspiracies against our people demand facing them with a united national stand.”
Central Council secretariat said 135 invitations were sent out to it members, including some from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are not members in the PLO, who said they are going to boycott the meeting. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Palestinian National Initiative, all PLO members, have decided to also boycott the Central Council meeting.
The APF said “the PLO is the larger house of the Palestinian people under whose roof we can agree or disagree.”
It said, “the challenges ahead demand that everyone takes part in making the Central Council meeting a success in order to produce a national plan to face what has been described as the conspiracy of the century, particularly after (US) President Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem and moving his country’s embassy to the city, as well as other acts that have to do with refugees.”
It said it expects the meeting to discuss all issues that are important to the Palestinian people, particularly ending the division and overcoming all obstacles that have affected the Palestinian situation.
The two-day Central Council meeting will open at 6 in the evening at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah and will include on its agenda several topics, most important drawing a mechanism to transform the Palestinian Authority from an authority into a state and redefining political, security and economic relations with Israel.
It will also discuss intra-Palestinian reconciliation and other issues such of Jerusalem and refugees after the US change of policy toward them.
M.K.
