PFLP calls for Abbas and PLO ExCo to be accountable over negotiations

A leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has demanded an urgent meeting of the Fatah Central Council to hold Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO Executive Committee to account for the decision to return to negotiations. PFLP political bureau official Rabbah Mehanna said that the decision violates the conditions set by Fatah for a return to talks with the Israelis.

Mehanna called on the Palestinian people at home and abroad to protest against negotiations, which he described as “destructive and harmful” to the Palestinian cause. He urged Palestinians to exert pressure on Abbas to match the pressure exerted on him by the US and some Arab countries.

‘A return to negotiations means giving up fundamentals such as the right of return,” said Mehanna, ‘and it violates international resolutions.”

He stressed that the continuation of the Oslo approach, with US sponsorship, always sets the bar lower and lower. ‘Yet here is Abbas now recognising the so-called ‘Jewish nature of the state’ and giving up the pre-1967 borders, Palestinian rights in Jerusalem and the right to return.”

He added that Oslo has proved to be a failure and called for unity among Palestinians on the basis of holding fast to national fundamentals. ‘We also need to stick to resistance out of respect for the decisions made by institutions like the Central Council.”