The Presidency warned today that Israel’s aggressive policies would blow up the region. Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh stated that Israel’s aggressive policies manifest in extrajudicial killings, colonial settlement construction, besieging cities, collective punishment and assaults against the holy sites would blow up the region with unpredictable consequences. Abu Rudeineh made his comments during a meeting a delegation of members of both the US Democratic and Republican parties at the presidential headquarters in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. He added that the situation on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territories requires robust effective intervention on part of the US administration, particularly that statements of regret and condemnation in response to the situation have never been sufficient, elaborating that US President Joe Biden’s announced commitment to supporting the two-state solution, rejecting colonial settlement construction and forced expulsions, and respecting the long-standing status quo at the holy sites in Jerusalem should be translated into an action on the ground. Given the above, the US administration, Abu Rudeineh added, should adopt clear policies that oblige Israel, to comply with the United Nations resolutions, respect its obligations, as an occupying power, under international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, and halt its policies aimed at consolidating its settler-colonialism regime as a means to solve the Question of Palestine based on the UN resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative, to which the Palestinian leadership is committed. He recalled that President Mahmoud Abbas has always reaffirmed the Palestinian side’s commitment to the UN resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative as the only way to achieve regional peace and stability and establish the independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital. He stressed that all UN resolutions have clearly affirmed the illegality of colonial settlements in West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the need to dismantle them, as manifested in UN Resolution 2334. However, the occupation authorities continue unabatedly colonial settlement construction activities in defiance of the international community, not to mention the ongoing withholding of Palestinian tax revenues in violation of all signed agreements. He concluded by reiterating that the Palestinian leadership has called upon the US Congress to reconsider its resolutions on the Palestine Liberation Organization as such resolutions hinder the establishment of balanced relations with the Palestinian side.

Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA