The PA refuses talks on non-contiguous Palestinian state

The London based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper on Monday quoted its correspondent in Ramallah, Waleed Awad, as saying, “While US president Barak Obama is attempting to end his second term with the establishment of a Palestinian state confined in the West Bank – far away from Gaza Strip – as an historical achievement that he is offering to the Palestinian people, the Palestinian Authority expressed its absolute refusal of the American approach.”

The political adviser to president Abbas, Nemer Hammad, told Al-Quds Al-Arabi on Monday that the Palestinian stance was conveyed to the US during the visit of Saeb Erekat and Mohamed Eshtialast last week. The same position was reiterated during the meeting with John Kerry.

---

Regarding the US offer to establish a Palestinian state by making use of the internal division and of Hamas’ governmental leadership and administrative sovereignty over the Gaza Strip, Hammad said, “Whether Hamas is controlling or not, when we say the Palestinian state established on the territories occupied in 1967, its capital being East Jerusalem, it should be clear that this state includes both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank; completely apart from the issue of Hamas’ control of the Strip.”

He said that these ideas were rejected, and that the Palestinian leadership refuses any talks of a Palestinian state without geographic connection between the West Bank and Gaza. He also explained that the state which the Palestinian people are demanding is a state which exists alongside Israel on the 1967 border- it includes the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.