Netanyahu says would oppose Palestinian statehood
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea of a Palestinian state, promising that he would not allow the creation of such a state if he wins another term in office.
“Whoever moves to establish a Palestinian state or intends to withdraw from territory is simply yielding territory for radical Islamic terrorist attacks against Israel,” he told Israeli news site NRG on Monday.
He said that if he is re-elected to office, the Palestinians would not get the independent state they seek in the occupied West Bank, East al-Quds (Jerusalem) and Gaza.
The remarks, made on the eve of Israel’s parliamentary elections, come as latest opinion polls indicate that Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party is behind the center-left Zionist Union coalition, an alliance of the Labor party, led by Isaac Herzog, and former Minister for Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party.
Polling stations opened at 7:00 am local time (5:00 GMT) on Tuesday, where eligible voters are electing a new 120-seat Israeli Knesset (parliament).
On March 13, US Secretary of State John Kerry (pictured above) held talks with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II on the stalled so-called peace process in the Middle East.
Earlier this month, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Tel Aviv to voice their anger at Netanyahu’s policies, calling on him to step down ahead of the parliamentary elections.
In December last year, Palestinians presented a bid for statehood to the Security Council as Washington and Tel Aviv were formulating a joint opposition against the move.
The resolution needed to secure at least nine votes to be adopted by the 15-member council. However, it managed to garner only eight positive votes, as the US and Australia voted against the resolution and the UK, Rwanda, Nigeria, South Korea and Lithuania abstained.
The draft resolution designated occupied East al-Quds as the capital of a future Palestinian state, addressed the issue of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and demanded the end of Israeli occupation by 2017.
In November 2012, the United Nations General Assembly voted to upgrade Palestine’s status at the UN from “non-member observer entity” to “non-member observer state” despite strong opposition from Israel and the US.
HJM/HJL/HMV
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