After years of threats, sources say Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has finally halted cooperation with Israel in protest of new government’s plans to annex West Bank areas.
In addition to security and intelligence cooperation between the Israeli military and Palestinian security forces, civil ties between Israel and the Palestinian Authorities were also set to cease.
Defense officials warned that the halting of cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authorities could lead to rising violence, with more clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians.
The Palestinians were no longer bound by agreements with Israel and the US, citing the new government’s plan to move forward with annexation of West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley as early as July 1, 2020.
Israel’s annexation of any parts of the West Bank constitutes an existential threat to the Palestinian national project and an end to the two-state solution,” he said, according to the PA’s official Wafa news agency.
PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, charged that Israel breached international law and violated all the agreements signed with us and therefore we will no longer abide by these agreements.
According to the Haaretz daily, Palestinian security forces had withdrawn from the West Bank’s Areas B and C to Area A, which is under full PA control.
Area B is under Israeli security control, with certain exceptions where Palestinians maintain limited security control, while Area C is fully administered by Israel.
The Palestinian Authority security services will stop sharing information with the USA Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in protest of Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank.
The PA government cut all ties with the Trump administration in 2017, accusing US President Donald Trump of pro-Israel bias for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The decision to also end security ties with the US was in protest of the administration’s endorsing of Israeli annexation in parts of the West Bank within the framework of its peace plan.
Those areas include Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley — a key strategic area that makes up around a third of the West Bank.
Palestinians say the US plan ends prospects for a two-state solution to their decades-long conflict with Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to go through with annexation has led to condemnations from a growing list on countries, including Arab states such as Jordan and European nations like France and Germany.
Saudi Arabia also voiced its opposition to the new Israeli government’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank.
In a statement quoted by Saudi-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya, the country’s foreign ministry said it rejects unilateral moves and any violations of UN Security Council resolutions.
Saudi Arabia has long championed the Arab Peace Initiative, a 2002 proposal that would see Arab states recognize Israel in exchange for a Palestinian state in the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip — with agreed upon land swaps — and a capital in East Jerusalem.
According to the Haaretz daily, Palestinian security forces began withdrawing from the West Bank’s Areas B and C to Area A, which is under full PA control.
Under the Oslo peace accords, Area A is under full PA control, Area B is under Israeli security control, with certain exceptions where Palestinians maintain limited security control, and Area C is fully administered by Israel.
Citing Palestinian sources, the newspaper said Israel has been updated about development and the retreat largely affects the Palestinian civilian populations in Areas B and C.
Times of Israel / ABC Flash Point News 2020.
It is absolutely no use in making agreements with Israel, because they never keep their end of deal.
They only care about themselves, as they are the chosen ones and the rest is not?
“Defense officials warned that the halting of cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authorities could lead to rising violence, with more clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians.”
Anytime a people are subjected to apartheid there will be violence and resistance. Have these “defense officials” not been paying attention to the violence Israeli occupiers commit against Palestinians every day?
Those career criminal do not really care, as long as they can profit from distractions in order to occupy more Palestinian land?
Or Syrian, Jordanian and/or Egyptian land?