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Wed, Aug 25, 2010 | The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

Mahmoud Abbas chairs the meeting of the PLO's executive committee at which he announced that the Palestinian Authority agreed to relaunch negotiations with Israel (From palvoice.com, August 21, 2010)

Palestinian Reactions to the Direct Talks Invitation

The Peace Process

On August 20, American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton invited Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to meet in Washington on September 2 to relaunch direct negotiations. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Jordan’s King Abdallah and International Quartet envoy Tony Blair were also invited to Washington to attend the event and meet with the president of the United States on September 1 (CNN, August 20, 2010).

Clinton’s invitation did not provide details of the substance issues of the negotiations. However, she noted that the objective of the talks was to resolve the final status issues within a year. On August 20 the International Quartet issued a general statement which called for undertaking negotiations which would resolve all the final status issues, lead to an settlement which would end the “occupation” which began in 1967 and lead to the emergence of an independent Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel (European Union Council website, August 20 2010).

The main Palestinian reactions to the invitation were the following:

* The Palestinian Authority – The PLO’s executive committee held a meeting in Ramallah on August 20 chaired by Mahmoud Abbas, and said it agreed to relaunch direct negotiations based on the announcement of the International Quartet (Wafa News Agency, August 20 2010). Saeb Erekat, head of the PLO’s negotiating division, said he hoped the International Quartet and the United States would work to prevent Israel from building in the settlements (Reuters, August 21, 2010). He made similar statements to Al-Sharq al-Awsat (August 22, 2010). At a press conference held in Ramallah on August 23, he said he hoped Israel would chose to continue the construction freeze in the settlements, because if it did not, the direct negotiations would end. Hana Amira, a member of the PLO’s executive committee, said that Mahmoud Abbas told the committee members he was not hopeful about the negotiations. He said “the real test is September 26, 2010,” that is, the final date of the Israeli decision to freeze construction in the settlements (Al-Quds Al-Arabi, August 23, 2010).

* The Hamas movement – Hamas strongly denounced the Palestinian Authority’s agreement to relaunch direct negotiations with Israel. It said in a statement that such a move was “neglect of the Palestinians’ rights” and that it enabled Israel to continue its building programs in the West Bank and its “aggression” against the Palestinians. The American administration, according to the statement, was biased in favor of Israel and the International Quartet’s announcement was nothing more than a “fig leaf” given to Mahmoud Abbas and the so-called “Oslo team.” The statement also noted that the Palestinians were not committed by “the results of those absurd negotiations” and that their “rights” would be achieved only on the basis of national unity based on the “resistance” (i.e., the terrorist organizations) (Hamas’ Palestine-info website, August 21, 2010). Senior Hamas spokesmen, among them Khaled Mashaal and his deputy Musa Abu Marzuq, repeatedly denounced the Palestinian Authority’s agreement to relaunch direct negotiations with Israel.