The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization on the Middle East Quartet Report

The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, met on July 3, 2016, and was briefed by President Abbas on his recent trip, which included Saudi Arabia, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Qatar, the European Union, and Austria.

The Executive Committee also deliberated the report of the Middle East Quartet and after careful reading affirmed the following:

1. The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization reaffirms that the essence of the problem is the Israeli occupation and its endless crimes and aggression. It also states that any attempt to equate and compare Israel -as the occupying power- with the Palestinian people -that are under occupation- is morally bankrupt.

2. The Executive Committee affirms that the Israeli occupation is the highest form of terrorism, incitement, racism and Apartheid. Contrary to the demand stipulated in the report of the Quartet that calls on the end of violence, incitement, and hatred by the Palestinian people, it is more imperative for the report to address the burning of the child Muhammad Abu Khdair, the murder of Muhammad Al-Durra, and the burning of the eight month infant Ali Dawabsheh along with his mother, father, and brother, the cold-blooded murder of Abdul Raheem Al-Shareef, and Mahmoud Badran as well as the torching of churches, mosques, schools, as well as public executions, and collective punishments, house demolitions, assassinations, arrests, establishing facts on the grounds through the apartheid wall, colonization, the crippling seizure of the Gaza Strip, and racial and offensive statements reiterated by Israeli officials. All these criminal acts and measures are ignored in this report.

3. The report of the Quartet indirectly asks the Palestinian people to accept the occupation and the Status Quo. In addition, the report attempts to manage the conflict rather than setting means and principles for a final and just resolution on the basis of eradicating settlements and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the land occupied in 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and resolution of the final status issues, including the prisoners issues, pursuant to the relevant international legal instruments.
4. In association with the French initiative, the US, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations need to set a date for an international conference for peace with full jurisdiction to implement UN resolutions 242, 338, 252, 476, 478, 1397, 1860 as well as General Assembly Resolutions 194 and 67/19 with the objective of ending occupation and the withdrawal from the occupied Syrian and Lebanese land. All these bases need to be planned within a specified timeframe and under the umbrella of an international mechanism that ensures implementation and compliance.
5. While the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization is closely following the situation in our region primarily on the war declared on terrorism, it asserts that the triumph over terrorism can succeed only when everyone stops dealing with Israel as a state above the law.
6. Obligating the Israeli government to implement the international resolutions and international law is the cornerstone for holding an international peace conference and launching a meaningful peace process. The US, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations, in close cooperation with the French Initiative, are capable of obliging Israel to accept the two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders, halting settlement activities, and to set a time frame for negotiations and implementations, as well as setting an international terms of reference for the negotiations, and to ensure the implementation of the obligations of the two sides …. Moreover, there is a need to raise the issue of international protection for the Palestinian people at a special meeting (Arria Formula) at the Security Council.
7. The Executive Committee is ready to continue cooperation with the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations on the basis of its previous positions stipulated in the Road Map and the Arab Initiative and the relevant resolutions. It also reaffirms its commitment to the implementation of the signed agreements. The latest report of the Quartet of July 1, 2016, constitutes a flagrant departure from international law and relevant international legitimacy, as well as from the Road Map, the Arab Peace Initiative, and the signed agreements.  It also lowers the ceiling of the international position regarding the international resolutions pertaining to Palestine. The PLO Executive Committee reaffirmed its absolute rejection to the approach of equalizing between the occupying power and the occupied in the Quartet recommendations. 
8. The foundations and principles for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace are clearly defined in international law and international legitimacy.  Any departure from these foundations and pillars will fail neither will it create a new reality.

The Executive Committee welcomed the statement of the Socialist International on July 2, 2016, regarding the end of occupation, and the recognition of a Palestinian state on the borders of June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The Executive Committee views with great concern the recent regretful incidents in some of the Palestinian villages and towns and it mourns the loss of life and sends its condolences to the families of the deceased. The Executive Committees opposes any form of violence or retribution and it affirms its obligation to punish the assailants.

At a time when the State of Palestine is attempting to assemble and make use of all energies to conduct a viable and empowered international conference for peace with the purpose of establishing an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, and in its effort to confront Israeli aggression and to show Palestine as a country of law and institutions, we affirm our rejection to all forms of lawlessness, turmoil, or any form of chaos that serve no one but the Israeli occupation…

The Executive Committee also welcomed the cabinet decision to hold local elections in October 2016 and affirms its importance and the need for these elections to be held in all the governorates of Palestine including Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. These elections will be followed by legislative and presidential elections, as well as elections for the Palestinian National Council.

The Executive Committee also reiterated the importance of achieving Palestinian reconciliation by forming a national unity government, in accordance with the PLO’s national program and the holding of general elections as being the basis for empowering our people to confront the occupation plans that aim at destroying the two-state solution and replacing it with a one state solution under an apartheid regime, and the continuation of the status quo by means of strengthening settlements and changing the facts on the grounds, especially in East Jerusalem, in addition to the other aggressive measures such as collective punishment, house demolitions, closure, etc.

The Executive Committee considered the recommendations made by the committee in charge of examining the tasks of the various branches of the PLO and their relations with the Palestinian National Fund, and the PLO Secretariat. The Committee assigned the Secretary General of the PLO’s Executive Committee to follow up with this matter to present a resolution for a Presidential Decree during the next meeting of the PLO’s Executive Committee.

The PLO’s Executive Committee offers its greetings to the Palestinian people as well as to all Arab and Islamic countries on the occasion of Eid Al-Fitr hoping that Palestine will be soon independent with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Glory to the martyrs, Liberty to the Prisoners, Speedy recovery to the injured

Long Live Palestine