Dr. Saeb Erekat on the Manama Economic Workshop and the US Economic Plan

The potential of our people lies in their ability to live in a sovereign and free Palestine. Our right to self-determination, freedom, and independence should be honored through the implementation of UN resolutions and international law. This is the only way to peace and prosperity. Our position is clear: we will not compromise on the necessity of a permanent, comprehensive, and lasting political solution. 

Nevertheless, the Trump Administration is insinuating that they know what is best for the Palestinian people. So far, they haven't condemned Israeli violations as illegal: its confiscation of Palestinian lands, settlement construction, theft of natural resources, and its denial of our human rights. What they have been advocating for, on the other hand, is their illegal and unilateral decisions, and the normalization and support of Israel's colonial enterprise towards sustaining the Israeli occupation of Palestine. 

Just yesterday, US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and President Trump's Assistant for National Security Affairs, John Bolton, visited the occupied Jordan Valley with Benjamin Netanyahu to again justify Israel's occupation and to promote its plan for the further annexation of lands belonging to the State of Palestine. Annexation is a war crime under international law and is a threat to the security, contiguity, and the viability of a sovereign State of Palestine, on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The Manana Economic Workshop, which coincides with the Arab Finance Ministers' emergency meeting in Cairo and the Pledging Conference for UNRWA in New York, and the released US Economic Plan are only a deviation from the fundamental political solution that necessitates ending Israel's 52 years- long military occupation and a just solution to Palestinian refugees in accordance to UNGA resolution 194.

Such inciting campaigns aim at making the people and leadership of Palestine accept the dictations, threats, and tyranny of both the US and Israel - and they are doomed to fail. The Palestinian people have the right to live in freedom, dignity, peace, and security- and we are committed to defending our inalienable rights, mainly our right to self-determination, and Palestine's right to exist.