Abbas under illusion of becoming president of an independent Palestinian state

The resumption of negotiations doesn’t mean Palestinians and Israelis will be able to resolve issues of borders, settlements and security, Dr. Haidar Eid, political analyst from Al Aqsa University in Gaza, told RT.

RT:If such a size of population is not represented will negotiators reflect what Palestinians really want?

Haidar Eid: Well in fact what the Palestinians really want is not only reflected in the perspective of Hamas on the issue of the resumptions of negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis. But last week there was a meeting for the Politburo of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and almost all Palestinian organizations represented on the political buro voted against the resumption  of the negotiations unless Israel  recognizes Palestinian right to self-determination and the two states solution and puts an end to its settlement activities in the West Bank.

RT:The negotiations will be long, will they get to the real points like borders, settlements and security?

HE: Well, that is a brilliant question in fact. Because in 1993 negotiations that started in Oslo and the Oslo accords were signed in Washington, and for 20 years nothing has happened so far. But in fact what happened has been actually Israel’s annexation of more land of the West Bank. It has erected a monstrous wall in the West Bank and Israel has imposed a deadly medieval siege on the Gaza strip. Now the point of reference for the Oslo accords is not international law, because international law guaranties the right to self-determination to the Palestinian people. And the right to self-determination of the  Palestinian people entail one right that more than 7 million of Palestinian refugees that scattered all over the world living in miserable conditions and miserable refugee camps all over the world have actually their right to return. Also international law guarantees the right of equality of more than 1.2 million Palestinian citizens of the state of Israel, who are treated as 2nd if not 3d class citizens. But also international law guarantees the right of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to live freely and free from direct military occupation. And I don’t think that, you know, the resumption of the negotiations means that the Palestinians and the Israelis will be able to deal with these serious issues.

RT:How realistic is the Mahmud Abbas statement, that he doesn’t want any Israelis on his soil?

HE: Well, I think that Mr. Abbas is living under illusion of becoming the president of an independent Palestinian state, forgetting the fact that the Israel has actually created new facts on the ground, by making the establishment of sovereign independent state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank an impossibility. Because, I said earlier, it all has expropriated more than 55% of the land of the West Bank. The number of Israeli settlers in 1993 when the PLO signed the Oslo accords with Israel, was about 200,000 settlers, the number of citizens now is more than 600,000 in the West Bank and the so-called Greater Jerusalem. And I think that shows the kind of truly real relationship of Israelis and Palestinians - the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed, not unlike the relationship between the White apartheid system of South Africa in 1970s and 80s and the antiapartheid movement. And the only solution they were not going back to the negotiation tables or trying to have unfair broker like the Americans, exactly like we, Palestinians, have right now. But in fact sustain the BDS campaign, boycott, divestments and sanctions and form the popular resistance against the oppressor and asking the international committee to intervene by supporting the oppressed, the colonized. And I don’t think that Mr Abbas and the people who signed the Oslo accords are really serious about supporting the popular resistance against occupation.