Palestinian premier calls for standing against Bennett’s no's

RAMALLAH, Palestine

The Palestinian prime minister on Monday called for a common stance of Palestinians and the international community against his Israeli counterpart's "no's."

Muhammad Shtayyeh used the "no's" in reference to Naftali Bennett’s refusal to talk to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to resume Israel-Palestinian negotiations, ignoring the two-state solution.

The Israeli “Prime Minister's no's, no contact with President (Mahmoud Abbas) Abu Mazen, no negotiations, and no Palestinian state, demonstrate that the program of this Israeli government is only to promote settlement and confiscate more land, further deprive our people of their natural resources, and bulldoze the geographical base of the State of Palestine,” Shtayyeh told the weekly session of the Council of Ministers in Ramallah, the center of the occupied West Bank.

He called for the "need of a serious stance" among all Palestinians and the international community, “especially from the countries that advocate and believe in the two-state solution" against the Israeli government’s position.

This is not the first time that Shtayyeh accuses Bennett of not intending to meet Abbas, citing the former’s continuation with illegal settlement plans.

According to Shtayyeh, Bennett seeks to continue with “the systematic destruction of the possibility of establishing the state of Palestine” which he said requires that Palestinians review their current approach.

The Palestinian prime minister also highlighted the recapture of six Palestinian prisoners who fled, saying the incident “reopens the prisoners' file."

On Sept. 6, six inmates tunneled out of the maximum-security Israeli Gilboa prison. Four of them were re-arrested on Sept. 10-11, while the last two were recaptured on late Saturday.

Peace talks between the Palestinian and Israeli sides collapsed in 2014 after Israel retracted from its decision to release the fourth batch of former prisoners, and for refusing to halt its settlement plans.

There are around 4,850 Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, including 41 women, 225 children, and 540 “administrative detainees,” according to observers.

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara.