ammonnews.net

By Muhammad al Dakamseh


The biggest mistake made by the PLO was to agree to the concept of negotiations with Israel on issues that already were granted, judged and decided as theirs by international law: Jerusalem, "West Bank," Gaza, the right of return/refugees, etc, all belong to the Palestinians. No one objected to that.

The problem facing the Arabs nowadays is that they cannot even dream of putting west Jerusalem and the land that was occupied by Israel during the 1948 war on the table of negotiations.


One other mistake (November 2012) which made most of Arab people joyful was the resolution by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to grant Palestine a state observer status on only territories occupied by Israel in 1967. By working tirelessly, advocating and accepting such resolution, PLO agreed practically to expand the land of Israel from an area composed of 52% to 78% of the historic land of Palestine.

Prior to that November 2012 UNGA Resolution, there was not even one country in the world that recognized west Jerusalem as part of Israel. Israel has objected to PLO (/Palestinian Authority) move in November 2012 only because it feared the possible ability of the "new Palestine state" to register criminal cases against Israeli officials in the international Criminal Court.

But Israel won - according to International law, Israel now legally became bigger in land, they also got west Jerusalem as theirs, and we the Arabs are happy to include East Jerusalem as an item in the negotiation agenda.
Are we stupid or what?


Palestinian negotiators should inform their Israeli counterparts that they are negotiating the implementation of issues already decided via UN resolutions and international law -Say to them: we are not discussing the issues themselves.


Save our face !!