“What the US is doing in Palestine is a threat against every single principle of peaceful coexistence between nations” – that is what EU foreign ministers should tell United States secretary of state Mike Pompeo in Monday’s (15 June) video-talks, according to Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian diplomat.

” They [the EU] should state that in case of addition … there will be effects for Israel, consisting of sanctions,” Erekat informed EUobserver in an interview the exact same day.

• United States secretary of state Mike Pompeo (r) with Hungarian prime minister and Israeli ally Viktor Orban (l) (Image: state.gov).

“And they should remind the US their annexation plan is a threat to the basic principles of historic transatlantic cooperation,” headded

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Erekat is the secretary general of the Palestine Freedom Organization (PLO), the UN-recognised body representing Palestinian people.

He spoke after Israel, with United States support, just recently promised to annex one 3rd of the West Bank, which it dominated from Arab states in1967

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The relocation would quash Palestinian and EU goals for a two-state service to the dispute.

Israel is anticipated to do it either in July or in fall.

However when asked if it was still stoppable by diplomatic methods, Erekat stated:”Yes. Just like any other crime can be stopped. You have to make clear though that diplomacy also involves the use of sanctions”

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The strategy looked stoppable, since even the United States and Israel were internally “divided” on its benefits, headded

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And EU countries had both the power and the historic responsibility to obstruct it, Erekat stated.

“Some forget that the EU is Israel’s main trade partner and therefore there are important tools that can be used to implement international law,” he stated.

Recalling, the 65- years of age diplomat, who assisted work out the Oslo peace treaty with Israel in the 1990 s, stated: “We got here [the annexation threat] since of the impunity approved to Israel, consisting of rewards such as the EU-Israel association contract, which continued unabated regardless of the extreme Israeli infractions to its short article 2”.

The 20- years of age EU-Israel contract grants trade and diplomatic benefits.

Its short article 2 states:”The provisions of the agreement … shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles”

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However Israeli settlement growth and complimentary usage of violence versus Palestinians have actually continued unopposed for the past 20 years.

And even if Palestinians provided Israel what it prepared to take, that would not end the procedure, Erekat anticipated.

“Israel will continue expanding their illegal colonial-settlement enterprise as far as they can do so. As simple as that,” he informed thiswebsite

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Gun/olive history

Looking even more back, the PLO’s late co-founder, Yasser Arafat, notoriously informed the UN general assembly in 1974:”I come bearing an olive branch in one hand and the freedom fighter’s gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand”

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The last Palestinian uprising, some 15 years earlier, included 3,000 Palestinian and 1,000 Israeli deaths.

When asked if West Bank addition might provoke more violence, Erekat stated: “I’m specific that some people in Israel are doing whatever possible for this to take place. I can simply state that our [the PLO’s] dedication to international law, diplomacy, and the international legal system has actually been shown”.

However he likewise echoed Arafat on the danger of leaving people without any choices.

” The concern is: What sort of Palestinian resistance is appropriate for those who state ‘No’ to armed battle, however likewise ‘No’ to BDS [international boycotts of Israel], ‘No’ to prohibiting settlement items, ‘No’ to labelling [of settler exports], ‘No’ to stopping business from operating in inhabited area … ‘No’ to stopping organisations moneying settlements, and ‘No’ to international legal action?,” Erekat stated.

“What kind of message are they sending to our people?,” he stated.

Previously-drafted EU sanctions choices versus Israeli settlements consisted of full acknowledgment of Palestinian statehood in addition to financial charges.

Hawkish EU states, consisting of Sweden and Luxembourg, have actually required immediate action in line with Erekat’s alarmbell

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However Monday’s Pompeo-EU talks were anticipated to focus on China and Libya, rather ofIsrael

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And the EU embraces sanctions by agreement, while Israel has veto-wielding EU allies, such as Hungary, in Europe.

Not vanishing

If all that appeared the Palestinians may disappear from the map, it did not suggest they would vanish in reality, nevertheless, Erekat kept in mind.

“This is not the end of our rights or the end of international law,” he stated.

“We are not going to disappear and Israel will have to deal with the results of its actions, what they have truly imposed: an apartheid regime,” he stated, describing South Africa’s history of racial injustice.

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