RAMALLAH: A senior Palestinian official urged the US administration to activate a letter of guarantees presented to Israel and Palestine in 1991.
In a statement on Tuesday Hanan Ashrawi, member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Executive Committee and head of its Media and Culture Department, called on US special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell to "reactivate a previous message of guarantees that [the US] turned away from.”
Ashrawi's remarks followed Israeli media reports that the Obama administration was preparing a list of guarantees to help Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) resume peace talks, which had stalled for a year due to Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
She added that the 1991 letter, which was put forward at the Madrid conference and paved the way for Oslo peace accords between Israel and the PLO, included guarantees preventing any party from taking unilateral measures that could harm any agreements, especially with regards to the construction of West Bank settlements.
Israel refused to completely stop Jewish settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians consider as their future capital, creating obstacles to international efforts to restart negotiations.
Ashrawi said the US administration should actively intervene and take a stance against “Israeli arrogance."
Meanwhile, the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din said that the Israeli government has informed its High Court of Justice it will consider taking over 3.7 hectares of land owned by Palestinian farmers in the West Bank village of Ein Yabruod to retroactively legitimize the construction of a wastewater purification plant for the settlement of Ofra.
The organization said in a statement that the farmers had not consented to the illegal facility. The plant did not receive a building permit and contradicted the outline plan for the village, Yesh Din said.
It added that the Israeli National Infrastructures Ministry had largely paid for the 7.8 million Israeli shekel ($2 million) wastewater purification plan.
