Palestinians condemn Israeli plan to build security fence with Jordan

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has condemned Israeli plans to build a security fence along the borders with Jordan saying “it undermines the establishment of a Palestinian state and harms Palestinian-Jordanian national interests”.

PA officials described the move as a “new aggression against the Palestinians” and part of Israeli plans to “impose unilateral arrangements on the solution of the final status issues”.

Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad reported the Palestinian officials reiterating the importance of Palestinian-Jordanian coordination in order to take the issue of the fence to the UN.

Former Palestinian Minister Mahmoud Al-Habbash told Al-Ghad that the decision to build the fence aims at reinforcing the occupation. “Israel does not adopt the logic of peaceful and reconciliation thinking, but attempts to impose de-facto measures on the ground,” he said.

He stressed that continuous settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and the decision to build this fence “will not bring peace, security and stability to the region”.

Al-Habbash criticised the massive Israeli security campaign against the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. “The Israeli occupation has taken the incident of the three Israeli settlers who went missing, and were later found dead, as a pretext to carry out aggressions against Palestinians,” he said.

“This gave a green light to the settlers to kidnap, burn and kill a Palestine boy on Wednesday in Jerusalem.” He called for the international community to condemn Israeli aggressions and protect the Palestinian people.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that in the light of recent developments in Iraq, Israel would maintain a security presence in the Jordan Valley regardless of peace talks with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu also announced that Israel would build a security barrier along the Jordanian border that would stretch all the way from Eilat to the Golan Heights.