Hanan Ashrawi
Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg
Palestinians see Israel election as repudiation of peace efforts
Analysis: Following the April 9 vote, many in the West Bank foresee an even more hardline government concerning the peace process and lament their diminishing chances of establishing an independent state
The next Israeli government will apparently be made up of right-wing-parties, and people in the West Bank are expecting an even more hardline coalition when it comes to Palestinians and their rights.
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said in a statement on Wednesday that the results of Tuesday’s vote confirmed the persistence of what she called Israel’s “racism” and “extremism.”
PLO official Hanan Ashrawi (Photo: Reuters)
Ashrawi said that policies during previous governments headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were based on hate speech and aimed at causing Israeli citizens to trust the Palestinians even less, and thus mold their choice of representatives.
She stressed that the election results thwarted any prospects for peace, and clearly showed that Israelis reject the idea of establishing a Palestinian state, and supporting additional settlement activity in the West Bank, something she termed “a continuation of challenging international laws and norms, and the will of the international community.”
A West Bank settlement (Photo: Reuters)
She said Netanyahu would continue exercising his “extremist” and “militarist” agenda with blind support from the US and its president, Donald Trump, who did not hesitate to support his ally and enable the Israeli prime minister to extend his stewardship.
Moen al-Taher, a Jordanian political analyst, accuses the Israeli right of moving toward apartheid and said next government would not provide a solution for peace with the Palestinian people.
“The possibilities of peace and the two-state solution are no longer available,” Taher said, going so far as to predict that in 2019, Israel would be incorporating all of its “illegal” settlements in the West Bank, “if not the whole of the West Bank,” as part of the country.
President Reuven Rivlin votes in the Israeli elections, April 9, 2019 (Photo: GPO)
Hanna Issa, a Palestinian political analyst, said that the election results had to do with Israeli demographics, where the majority of the population was right-wing, and claimed that the US had influenced the election outcome.
“It’s not a coincidence that American Republicans living in Israel are hoping to hold a general conference in Jerusalem this year for all Republican expats,” he said. “At the end of the day, the United States won’t leave Israel to decide for itself, nor fframe a solution for the Middle East.”
Issa said that with background of the so-called deal-of-the-century, which is how people are referring to a Mideast peace plan by the Trump Administration that is still under wraps, would focus on achieving economic development in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – without any political progress.
“There will be no talk about a future Palestinian state,” he said. “The Israeli right doesn’t believe in the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.”
Article written by Dima Abumaria
Reprinted with permission from The Media Line
