The Revolutionary Council of the Fatah movement warned Israel on Monday against issuing any law that would divide Al-Aqsa Mosque, threatening that “this would blow up the whole region if it were to happen,” Arabs48 news website reported.
Quoting a statement by the Revolutionary Council, the website reported Fatah as saying that: “Any proposed Israeli law to divide Al-Aqsa Mosque, either spatially or temporally, is invalid under international law, and is a step that will blow up the whole region.”
At the conclusion of the council’s latest meeting, which lasted for three days in Ramallah, the occupied West Bank, in the presence of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the council stressed that: “The decision to have Palestine join the international institutions, including the International Criminal Court, is a Palestinian sovereign decision and all its procedures must continue to be completed before the end of this year.”
The council also expressed “its support for the political efforts of President Abbas, which have been approved by the PLO and the Fatah movement, to end the Israeli occupation and achieve Palestinian national independence.”
It reiterated that “going to the United Nations through the Security Council is a Palestinian right that is not subject to interpretation or bargaining, as it tests the council’s ability to ensure regional peace and security,” adding that, “the establishment of a Palestinian state is a crucial test for that mandate.”
The council also warned that any “failure of the Security Council to carry out its duties towards ending the Israeli occupation will pave the way for the declaration of the end of the peace process”.
Meanwhile, the council has now authorised Fatah’s Central Committee “to take any decisions that could be taken, including the cessation of any formal relationship with Israel, with all its obligations that have resulted from the Oslo agreement.”
The Revolutionary Council, which includes 130 people, is considered the Fatah movement’s top leadership. It holds meetings with the Central Committee four times a year, while the Central Council plays the day-to-day leadership role and consists of 23 members.
According to Arabs48, the council’s statement pointed out that, “The negotiations have become a goal for the government of the Israeli occupation to prolong its occupation and manage the conflict, rather than ending it,” adding that the negotiations “are only one of the Palestinian means to achieve national independence, one which we have given all the time and effort it needs, as well as any opportunity, to make it a success.”
The council then stressed that any future resumption of these negotiations must be linked “to halting all settlement construction, including in Jerusalem, stopping the encroachment on Al-Aqsa Mosque and acknowledging the borders of the Palestinian state, in addition to preparing for ending the Israeli occupation”.
Fatah demanded for the Arab and Islamic countries to champion Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem, and to actively support the steadfastness of the Palestinians in the occupied city, bringing an end to the state of indifference or the issuing of verbal condemnations alone.