JERICHO, Saturday, May 18, 2019 (WAFA) – Any attempt to deviate from the international and Arab terms of  reference on peace for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are doomed to fail, Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), today told Susanna Terstal, the European Union’s (EU) Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process.

“Achieving comprehensive, just and lasting peace will not be achieved through attempts to find equations for coexistence between the victim and the executioner, between the occupying power and the people under occupation, between those whose systems and laws are initiated on the bases of apartheid and racism,” Erekat told Terstal during their meeting held in the West Bank ancient city of Jericho.

“Attempts aimed at changing the terms of reference to the peace process represented by international law, international legality, the Arab Peace Initiative and the signed agreements are doomed to failure,” he said. “Deviating from the internationally agreed on terms of reference means a breakdown in the rules and pillars of international law, not only with regard to the Palestinian issue but also to all the fundamentals and foundations of international relations that are based on international law.”

Erekat said that “the intensification of settler colonialism and creating occupation facts on the ground, especially with regard to Jerusalem, extrajudicial executions, collective punishment, blockade, closures, land seizures, house demolitions and war crimes against our Palestinian people will not create a right and will not create an obligation. The entire world, even if it does not want to be the official tool for conflict resolution, must defend international law and international legality with all that it has.”

M.K.