Ramallah, Feb 1: Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye said that the remarks of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state are “an incitement to violence and proof of the Israeli government’s anti-peace stance.”
Ishtaye on Monday made the remarks in an official statement issued after the weekly meeting of the Palestinian Authority cabinet held in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Bennett was quoted by Israeli media as saying on Friday that as long as he is the prime minister of Israel, there will be no Oslo, referring to the peace agreements signed between Israelis and Palestinians in 1993.
He also said that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state and that he wouldn’t allow any political negotiations that would lead to a Palestinian state. In response, Ishtaye said rejecting to negotiate the establishment of a Palestinian state “proved to us and the world the scale of extremism of Bennett’s government and its positions hostile to peace and negotiations.”
Ishtaye called on the United States and the European Union to intervene to put an end to Israel’s settlements in East Jerusalem. Direct peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians stopped in 2014 following disputes on Israeli settlements and the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. U
