Erekat: Israel doesn't negotiate, it dictates

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Tuesday that, “Israel does not negotiate with others, but dictates to them,” Anadolu news agency reported.

Erekat was speaking to journalists while accompanying Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Commenting on Israel’s killing of two Palestinians just hours before the resumption of indirect Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire talks, he said: “This morning, Israel assassinated two Palestinians while there is a ceasefire in place. This sets off a dangerous alarm.”

He added: “The other issue is that Israel has appropriated 4,000 dunams (1,000 acres) of Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank and is bidding for the building of new settlements at a time when the whole world is fighting terrorism. Israel is the source of evil in the region.”

According to Anadolu, the PA official also called Israel “a burden on the world” and said that winning the anti-terrorism battle lies in “draining the spring of terrorism–Israel”.

Erekat explained that the Palestinian message to the UN is to put a timeline for ending the Israeli occupation and set a certain date for the establishment of an independent Palestine state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

He said that all the efforts of the PA president are concentrating on this message.

Israeli occupation forces killed two Palestinians on Tuesday at dawn in the southern West Bank city of Hebron. The two, according to the occupation authorities, were accused of kidnapping three Israeli settlers who went missing on 12 June and were later found dead.