Islam Times - PPP head calls for national unity, no return to negotiations

Islam Times - The sceretary-general of the leftist Palestinian people's Party on Friday said that all efforts need to be taken to preserve Palestinian national unity and ensure no return to negotiations with Israel outside of the Gaza framework.

PPP leader Bassam al-Salhi told Ma'an that preserving national unity is especially important following the Israeli offensive on Gaza and the daunting task of rebuilding facing Gazans.

Al-Salhi also condemned any attempts to return to negotiations with Israel -- outside of the Egyptian-sponsored Gaza ceasefire framework -- as "useless" and said they would not result in "anything new" for Palestinians.

He said that that the "only option" for Palestinians is to go to the United Nations Security Council and institutions to end the Israeli occupation and not return to negotiations, adding that negotiations with Israel only provide Israel an excuse to "stall."

Al-Salhi said that the going to the UN joins together national unity, popular resistance, and international intervention in a united effort to end occupation.

Although Fatah has long participated in peace negotiations with Israel that fell apart early in 2014 amid Israeli refusal to stop construction of Jewish-only settlements on West Bank lands, most Palestinian parties reject the negotiations as a cover for Israel to continue the occupation.

After the talks fell through, all major Palestinian political groups came together to support a government of national unity that ended eight years of political division between Gaza and the West Bank.