Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - A senior Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) official said on Sunday that recognising Israel as a Jewish state as part of the U.S.-brokered Palestinian-Israeli peace talks is out of the question, a senior Palestinian official said.

In a press statement, PLO Executive Committee Secretary General Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Palestinian position "on this issue is well-known and firm," adding that acceding to Israel's demand "represents a serious threat to the Palestinian cause as a whole." Any favourable response to the demand for recognition, he warned, would mean recognition of the Greater Israel, including the occupied Palestinian territories, as the national homeland of the Jewish people.

Rabbo said that Israel's persistent demand that Palestinians openly declare their recognition of the Jewish character of the state of Israel is a key hurdle to efforts underway to bring about a peace deal.

He also said Palestinians and Arabs are unanimous in their rejection of any demand to recognise Israel as a Jewish state in any peace formula.

*Petra