Egypt is hosting a US-Jordanian-backed meeting of Israeli and Palestinian representatives in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh to officially try to calm violence in the West Bank under Israeli military occupation ahead of Ramadan.
The meeting follows a summit in Jordan on February 26, the first in years, at which Israeli and Palestinian representatives pledged to de-escalate, but violence on the ground did not abate.
The purpose of today’s meeting is “to support dialogue between the Palestinian and Israeli sides with the aim of stopping unilateral actions and escalation and breaking the existing cycle of violence and achieving peace”the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced.
It would “enabled the establishment of a suitable atmosphere for the renewal of the peace process,” they added. The meeting comes ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which will begin on Thursday.
On Saturday, a representative of the Palestinian Authority, which has only partial control over a small part of the West Bank, Hussein Al Sheikh said that the Palestinian delegation will attend the summit in Egypt in order to “defended the right of our Palestinian people to freedom and independence”.
Palestinian political groups reject such talks
All major Palestinian political groups, except Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority, oppose such talks and call for their boycott, reports Al Jazeera.
In a joint statement, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine announced that it represents the persistence of the Palestinian self-governing authorities established in the 1990s with the Oslo Accords. “coup d’état against the will of the people”. As the two movements pointed out, Israel is taking advantage of these meetings to carry out even more aggression against the Palestinians.
The meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh is also rejected by the Hamas movement, which rules in occupied Gaza.
Palestinians demand the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on 22 percent of historic Palestine, which has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967, but Israel persistently denies them and expands illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory.
Israel has already settled more than 700,000 settlers in these settlements or cities. The settlements are strategically built to cut through the West Bank and separate East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, thereby preventing the establishment of a comprehensive and unified Palestinian state.
Israeli occupation forces and Israeli settlers have already killed 89 Palestinians this year, including 18 children and one woman. 14 people died in Palestinian attacks this year.
Source: Rtvslo
