Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the PLO, attacks the Trump peace plan, dubbed “Deal of the Century,” calling it the “Conspiracy of the Century.”
By Benjamin Brown, TPS
The Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Saeb Erekat, has described US President Donald Trump’s plan to establish the capital of a future Palestinian state in neighborhoods adjacent to eastern Jerusalem as “lies and distortion” and “the conspiracy of the century.”
“There is no meaning to Palestine as a state without full sovereignty on the Haram Al-Sharif [the Temple Mount], Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Walls, the narrow streets, the gate to heaven; Jerusalem of the ascendance to heaven and resurrection,” said Erekat, who has spent the past decade acting as the Palestinian side’s chief negotiator, the Palestinian Authority’s official WAFA news agency reported.
Erekat was responding to the US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the entirety of Jerusalem that is within the separation barrier running to its east. A future Palestinian capital was suggested to be in bordering Arab neighborhoods such as Abu Dis or Kufr Aqab
Trump’s Deal of the Century peace plan stipulates that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state, recognize Israel’s new borders after the annexation, recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and declare a complete waiver of the Right of Return.
Last Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin and the Israeli-American mapping team toured the Ariel area in Samaria, a preparatory stage towards the implantation President Donald Trump’s Deal of the Century peace plan.
The Israeli-American team is mapping Judea and Samaria ahead of the application of Israeli sovereignty in parts of the region, as stipulated by the Deal of the Century.
Netanyahu stated that the mapping of Judea and Samaria “is a major mission. The area has an 800-kilometer perimeter. There is serious work, but we will work as quickly as possible to get it done.”
“For the mapping process, one must consider every valley, every section, every nook and every line; this is serious. We are determining here lines that have historic implications. Therefore, the work will be done as quickly as possible, and we will not stop for anything,” he added.
Friedman said before the start of the meeting that “in Israel rain is a blessing, and I hope that our efforts should be blessed as much as the rain is coming down right now.”
“We hope to complete it as soon as possible, and complete it the right way for the State of Israel,” he added.