Palestinians look for Arab summit's political support
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The Palestinians on Saturday expressed hope that Arab states leaders, who convened on Saturday in the Libyan city of Sirte for a two-day annual Arab summit, would take firm decisions related to Jerusalem, the peace process and ending the internal Palestinian division.
Palestinian National Authority (PNA) officials said they hope that the Arab summit in Libya would bring about a great Arab political support to the Palestinians "to be able to confront the Israeli actions, mainly settlement activities and help to revive the standstill peace process."
Ahmed Majdalani, member of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee told Xinhua that "this year, the Arab summit is held as all the Arabs are facing the most dangerous stage that the Palestinian cause is passing through amid the current Israeli challenges."
"We are looking forward to seeing a large Arab political support to the Palestinian people on all levels in order to be able to face the right-wing Israeli government of (Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu which insists to elude from the peace process and keeps its aggressive actions against our people."
Despite the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama, the Israeli government announced that it would continue settlement activities in east Jerusalem, the part of the city that the Palestinians want to be the capital of their future independent Palestinian state.
The PLO official called on the Arab leaders "to strengthen their position and promote it into a moving pressure on the international community, mainly the United States to exert heavy pressure on Israel."
Majdalani called on the Arab summit not to keep the Arab peace initiative, adopted in 2002 "linked to waiting for Israel to accept it," adding "the initiative should be used as a strong Arab weapon and recruit the international efforts to implement the initiative which is a golden opportunity for peace."
Meanwhile, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a press statement sent to reporters that "the Arab summit is urged to support a peace process based on the full Israeli military withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories, including east Jerusalem, the capital of the (future) Palestinian state."
"The Arab leaders should send Israel a clear message that there will be no peace or normalization with the state of Israel unless it completely withdraws from all the Palestinian territories it occupied in June 1967," said Erekat, who also called on the summit to help the Palestinians end their current division.
Islamic Hamas movement, which seized control of the Gaza Strip by force in June 2007, following heavy fighting with its rival Fatah party, still refuse to sign on an Egyptian-drafted pact of inter-reconciliation, saying it has reservations that need to be discussed and considered.
Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of Fatah party's central committee, called on the Arab summit "to invest the recent Arab position which emerged in the last few weeks concerning Jerusalem and the Jewish settlement, and use the bilateral Arab coordination to regain mutual Arab activities against the Israeli policy."
"The Arab peace initiative is clear and has no ambiguities. Not implementing it through the Roadmap peace plan would oblige the Arabs to make practical steps, such as heading to the UN Security Council in case Israel refuses all the Arab and international efforts to solve the conflict," said al-Ahmad.
The efforts to resume the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks had so far failed, which completely stopped in December 2008. The Palestinians insist that any peace negotiations with Israel should be based on the complete cessation of settlement activities in the Palestinian territories.
Ahmed Bahar, deputy speaker of the Hamas-dominant parliament, known as the PLC, called on Arab leaders "to face the great challenges and defend Palestine and its holy sites that Israel is trying to turn it into Jewish," adding "the Arab leaders should financially and politically support Jerusalem."
"The 50 million dollars pledged by the Arab foreign ministers to support the steadfastness of Jerusalem is not enough, the Arab leaders should make more efficient decisions to face the wild Israeli campaign it carries out against Jerusalem and other Palestinian holy sites," said Bahar.
Meanwhile, the forum of the Palestinian independent figures in Gaza, which includes scientists, politicians, academics and Moslem and Christian religious men, called on the Arab summit "to exert every possible effort to achieve reconciliation between the feuding Palestinian parties."
The Palestinian prisoners' committee in Gaza has also called on the Arab summit "not to forget more than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners, imprisoned in Israel jails," adding "the Arab summit should take firm decisions to help releasing the prisoners and defend the Palestinian people and their holy sites."
