Ramallah: Arab MK meets Abbas, Hamas ministers
Ibrahim Sarsur discusses prisoners’ document, PLO reorganization with top PA officials; ‘I believe Hamas will be able to accept past agreements with Israel, but it will not do so without getting something in return – and that is the announcement of the Palestinians’ right to establish a state within 1967 borders,’ he says
Knesset Member Ibrahim Sarsur (United Arab List-Ta`al) told Ynet Sunday following his meetings in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and senior ministers in the Hamas-led government, “we wanted to take advantage of our status as MKs and representatives of the Islamic Movement in Israel to meet with senior Palestinian officials to try and advance the peace process to achieve stability in the region, for the sake of both nations.”
Sarsur and Abbas (center) during meeting in Ramallah (Photo:AFP)
Sarsur’s meeting with Abbas, the PA finance and education ministers and Palestinian Parliament Chairman Aziz Dwek, focused mainly on the prisoners’ document, the distribution of authority in the PA and the reorganization of the PLO in a way that would enable it to represent the entire Palestinian nation - a reorganization would require the inclusion of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the PLO.
During the visit Sarsur placed a call to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
“I asked to hear his views. I then requested the head of Knesset security to permit us to travel to Gaza to continue the talks. We believe that should the Palestinian side solve its differences in a way that would agree with Israel, this will bring peace and perhaps even a breakthrough in the diplomatic front,” he said.
'Israel will be solely responsible'
“We recommended that they (Palestinians) recognize the agreements signed with Israel, but they responded, perhaps justifiably, that the Palestinian leadership cannot recognize the agreements until Israel announces that it recognizes the Palestinian nation’s right to establish an independent state within the 1967 borders, or else it would lose all its prestige.
“I believe Hamas will be able to accept the past agreements, but it will not do so without getting something in return – and that is the announcement on the Palestinians’ right to establish a state within the 1967 borders.”
Sarsur added that “if Israel recognizes the Palestinians’ right to an independent state,the prisoners’ document would become obsolete, and the Palestinians would be saved of the trouble of holding a referendum on the issue.”
The document contains a number of clauses that will not be acceptable to Israel, including a commitment to the "right of return" and to upholding the resistance “by all means necessary.”
“Israel must announce immediately that the direction is the establishment of a Palestinian state within the ’67 borders, or else it will be solely responsible for what will transpire,” Sarsur said.
