PNA rejects Israel's offer, as Hamas rejects state with temporary borders
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Both the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Fatah party rejected on Thursday the Israeli offer to partially freeze settlement activities in the West Bank.
On the same day, deposed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haneya denied Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' statements that Hamas is holding secret talks with Israel, saying that Hamas would not accept a Palestinian state with temporary borders.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a written statement sent to the press that the PNA calls on the U.S. and the international community to urge Israel to fully stop settlement, following the Israeli government's decision to temporarily stop it only in the West Bank without Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will continue building 3,000 housing units in Jerusalem and will reject to resume the final status peace talks, said Erekat.
"I don't know how such a decision helps in resuming the peace process," said Erekat, adding "we hope that the U.S. and the world won't be dragged by Netanyahu's propaganda."
"They should focus their efforts and time on committing Israel to fully stop settlement in order to resume the peace negotiations soon," said Erekat.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated on Wednesday that the partial stop of settlement "would help the peace process. "
Meanwhile, Abbas Fatah party central committee has rejected in a press statement the Israeli government's offer to freeze settlement only in the West Bank for 10 months.
"There is nothing new in the Israeli offer, which approves once again that this government still insists on continuing the policy of escaping from the peace process and wasting all opportunities to achieve peace," said Fatah party.
"Settlement must completely stop, not only in the West Bank, and not partially, but it must completely stop in both the West Bank and Jerusalem," said Fatah party central committee.
Islamic Hamas movement has also rejected Netanyahu's plan saying that the offer is meaningless and empty, adding that the Israeli offer is illusive and deceiving.
"The offer aims at deceiving the Palestinians to resume empty and meaningless talks that will give the Palestinian people nothing," said Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas movement's spokesman in Gaza.
Deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haneya denied on Thursday earlier statements of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas which said Hamas is holding secret talks with Israel.
Haneya told a Swiss cultural delegation in his office in Gaza that he basically rejects the idea of establishing statehood with temporary borders as a final solution to the conflict with Israel.
He went on saying that Hamas strongly supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with full sovereignty and with Jerusalem as its capital without confiscating the rights of the coming Palestinian generation.
"We will positively respond to any invitation aims at resuming the national dialogue in order to achieve reconciliation," said Haneya.
Meanwhile, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) secretary general Yasser Abed Rabbo told a news conference in Ramallah that the Israeli partial cessation of Jewish settlement would not help to resume the peace process or achieve any progress.
"The partial cessation of settlement is completely rejected, and we consider it as a play, small games and a maneuver with narrow horizon," said Abed Rabbo, adding "this offer is deceiving and is considered a political maneuver which aims at escaping from the international pressure."
He added that this declaration "doesn't mean the full cessation of settlement," stressing that settlement "is not a legal job." He also renewed two basic demands to resume the peace talks.
"The first is the complete cessation of settlements not only in the West Bank, but also in Jerusalem, and the second is to show complete commitment to the establishment of an independent Palestinian statehood on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967," said Abed Rabbo.
