Palestinian leader condemns Israeli law to annex Jordan Valley

The Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Al-Barghouti, has described an Israeli committee’s approval of a bill to annex the occupied Jordan Valley to Israel as proof that negotiations are “just a cover for Israel’s settlement projects”.

Al-Barghouti pointed out that building any hopes on the “settlers’ government is similar to building hopes on a mirage.” He insisted that the time to stop “fake” negotiations has come.

Al-Barghouti, who is also a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said that Israel is alone in drawing the contours of a potential solution. It is using a strategy based on annexing Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, as well as keeping control over all border crossings.

Israel is also planning to nullify the right of return, he continued, and thus “it aims to change the idea of a full-sovereign state into a outwardly regulated self-control system.”

He asserted that the Israeli authorities are implementing a “dangerous settlement plan” in the occupied Jordan Valley, further explaining how: “Israel is continuing its ethnic cleansing by denying the rights of Palestinians, who are the original owners of the land, and preventing them from cultivating their own farms.”

The anti-settlement activist and Palestinian leader reiterated that the Jordan Valley is a “genuine part of the occupied West Bank”, but warned that, “Israel is planning to take it away from Palestinian sovereignty”.

Al-Barghouti called for “increasing and concentrating popular resistance” to confront the Israeli attempts to Judaise Palestine by the ongoing occupation of its lands.

He also called for the Palestinian Authority to join international bodies in order to prosecute the Israeli occupation over its crimes against the Palestinians.

Source: Samanews