Tel Aviv has threatened to take a series of unilateral steps if a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders gains official recognition in September which is the deadline given by the Middle East Quartet for the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks.
The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, reported on Tuesday, March 29, that the country’s foreign ministry directed 30 Israeli embassies to lodge a diplomatic protest at the highest possible levels in response to the Palestinian efforts to gain international recognition for statehood at the UN General Assembly session in September.
On his part, Fatah’s Revolutionary Council member, Dimitri Diliani, affirmed that the process of building national institutions for the Palestinian state will be completed by September, and that “the diplomatic war waged by the Occupation and fanatic Zionist organisations against the recognition of a Palestinian state reflects the Netanyahu government’s keenness and insistence on escaping from the peace process.”
He added, “Israel should rather have focused its efforts on making a decision to return to the political process by halting the colonial and illegal settlement activity in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967.”