PA Dares Israel to Revoke Defunct Oslo Accords
The Palestinian Authority, which has previously violated several key clauses in the Oslo Accords, is now warning Israel not to officially revoke them.
The 1993 Accords, signed by former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, who was the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), outlined the process for creating the Palestinian Authority as an independent country.
Several prime clauses that the PA has cancelled include the call for an interim agreement on border, negotiations for a final settlement, an end to terrorism and incitement and an unarmed military PA military force.
The efforts by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab League to lobby the United Nations to circumvent negotiations and unilaterally recognize the Palestinian Authority has promoted suggestions in the Netanyahu government that an appropriate Israeli response would be to officially cancel the Oslo agreements. Virtually all media and leading diplomats consider the agreement to be dead, if not buried.
However, PA Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki asserted on Monday that Israel would not “dare” to revoke the Accords. “This is just an attempt to weaken the spirit of Palestinian people and leaders and urge them to drop September's UN bid," Al-Maliki told Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency.
Ma'an claimed that Israel has undermined the agreement by entering “Area A” that is under Palestinian Authority control, were its security forces are supposed to destroy the terrorist infrastructure. The news agency did not note that several terrorist attacks have been launched from Area A.
Abbas has claimed that going to the United Nations “is not a unilateral act” because Israel “forced” it to do so by not agreeing to Arab political and territorial demands for creating a new Palestinian Authority state within Israel’s borders.
"Our first, second and third choice is to return to negotiations," said Abbas, who also has rejected Israel’s demand that he recognize the country as “Jewish” state.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Chinese news agency Xinhua “Israel had already annulled it [Oslo Accords] and there is no need for threats to call it off."
Pledging allegiance to the ”diplomatic process” that in effect has ended but which he has re-defined, Erekat added, "The Palestinian leadership is determined to approach the UN in September in order to protect the peace process and the principle of the two-state solution.”
Responding to the possibility that Israel will cancel the Accords, Hamas’s Gaza spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, stated, "If Israel annuls Oslo accords, it will be the happiest news for the Palestinian people, who have been waiting for this moment for a long time."www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/146062#.Ti4phqN5mSM