BICOM

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is reportedly refusing to extend peace talks unless Israel takes a variety of measures which if unmet, will see the PA turn to international bodies for redress.

An end of April deadline to the current peace negotiations between Israel and the PA is looming, with little progress having been made since the talks resumed in July. Israeli leaders have expressed their desire to extend the talks until the end of the year, but PA leaders appear to have set a number of conditions for this to take place.

The Palestinian Ma’an news agency reports that PA President Mahmoud Abbas told US President Obama last week that talks will only continue if Israel establishes a West Bank settlement freeze and proceeds with this week’s scheduled fourth and final stage in the overall release of 104 Palestinian prisoners, which Israel agreed in July in order to allow the resumption of peace talks. There have been suggestions that the PA will demand that this week’s release include Arab Israeli citizens and high-profile Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who is currently serving five life sentences for murder.

Meanwhile, Haaretz quotes Mohamed Ashtiya, a Fatah Central Committee member, who said that “Any delay or shirking” by Israel over the prisoner release will mean that “the PA will make the appropriate decisions,” over turning to the United Nations (UN) and other international bodies. Expressing similar sentiments, former-PA Minister of Detainees and Prisoner Affairs Ashraf al-Ajrami told the Jerusalem Post, “If there is an Israeli decision to postpone the [prisoner] release,” then “I think Palestinian leadership will decide to stop negotiations.”

According to Israeli news reports quoting US and Israeli sources, Abbas told Obama he would not accept key elements of a framework for on-going talks being drawn by US Secretary of State John Kerry. He reportedly rejected recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, giving up the right of return, or committing to an end of all Palestinians claims in the context of an agreement.

Abbas is expected to press the Arab League to reaffirm the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative at an Arab League meeting later today, as an alternative to the framework formula being developed by Kerry.

Meanwhile, 15 MKs sent a letter to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, urging him not to release the final group of Palestinian prisoners, but to instead institute a West Bank settlement freeze for the duration of negotiations as a goodwill gesture. It was signed by 12 Labour MKs plus MK David Tzur (Hatunah) and MKs Ya’akov Margi and Yitzhak Cohen (Shas).