PLO dismisses annexation of settlements in future peace deal
May 26, 2015 4:26 A.M. (Updated: May 26, 2015 7:08 A.M.)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765620

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Senior PLO officials on Tuesday rebuffed Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal to resume peace talks that would
allow the annexation of settlements, stressing that all construction in the
occupied West Bank is illegal.

"It's a request to continue illegal settlement construction with Palestinian
consent. This looks like one state and two systems rather than two sovereign
and democratic states," the PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

"If Mr. Netanyahu wants to have meaningful negotiations ending the
occupation that began in 1967, he should recognize a Palestinian State on
the 1967 border and honor Israel's obligations including a halt of
settlement construction and the release of the Palestinian prisoners."

Erekat was responding to comments made by the Israeli PM during a visit last
Wednesday by European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

The remarks, first reported in Haaretz, said that talks should first clarify
which areas of the occupied West Bank that Israel could continue to build
in.

PLO official Hanan Ashrawi joined the condemnation of the proposal, calling
it a "disingenuous and manipulative exercise of political and legal
deception."

She said: "All settlements are illegal and in flagrant contravention of
international law and consensus, and any efforts to annex and to legalize
the settlement blocs is a blatant attempt to steal more Palestinian land and
to legitimize Israel's ongoing system of apartheid, land theft and
expansion."

She added that peace talks should be based on international law and create a
binding timetable for the removal of all settlements in the occupied West
Bank.