Barghouti calls on Abbas to refuse to negotiate with Israel

Senior Fatah member Marwan Barghouti has called on the movement’s head, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, not to resume negotiations with the Israelis. Barghouti said that the results would be no different given the Israel government’s hostility to peace. He is in the 11th year of a life sentence in an Israeli prison.

In response to questions sent by Sky News Arabia through his lawyer, Barghouti said, “I would advise the Authority leadership not to repeat the experiment because the results will not be different; the extremist Israeli government is anti-peace.” He called on the Palestinian Authority to go to the United Nations and the Security Council to gain full membership for Palestine and sign-up to all of the UN charters, agencies, international treaties and the International Criminal Court instead of going into negotiations with the occupying state.

Barghouti called also for an international and regional boycott of Israel, and for it to be brought to account for its violations of international laws and conventions. The boycott should cover political, administrative, security and economic contacts.

He played down the importance of the latest American moves to push for the resumption of the peace process: “Washington has not succeeded in that for two decades, because the Israeli government is one of settlements and suppression.”

With regard to the issue of the Palestinian prisoners who are on hunger strike in Israeli jails, the Fatah leader praised the solidarity campaigns and the activities that are being organised by ordinary people to highlight the issues raised by the protests. He criticised the PA and Palestinian factions for not putting the prisoners as a priority issue on their agenda.