Islam Times - Fatah official: Palestinians want peace, but Israel doesn't

Islam Times - The Palestinians cannot reach a peace agreement with the current Israeli government or even with a future government because there is currently an imbalance between the two sides of the conflict, a Fatah official said on Thursday.

Member of Fatah Central Committee Tawfiq Tirawi told a Ma'an reporter in Ramallah Thursday that "negotiations can reveal to the world that the Palestinians are seeking peace, but that the occupation (regime) doesn't want it."

"Our just cause has the power of right, but we have never used this right," he added.

He explained that the Palestinians need to take advantage of the rights they are entitled to either take their case to the United Nations or to organize popular resistance activities. He stressed that these activities would support Palestinian negotiators and help them achieve better results.

The Israelis can reach a peace agreement, Tirawi said, "but they do not want to because according to their religious beliefs, this land belongs to them, which is neither real nor true."

Tirawi pointed out that negotiations are a means of resistance and it could be the weakest of all means. However, it is still a means to defy the occupier and prove to the world that "this occupation along with its American supporters are arrogant."

He added that Israel is occupying the land and people of Palestine and is practicing oppressive and aggressive acts against them.

"Negotiations can reveal to the world that the Palestinians are seeking peace, but that the occupation (regime) doesn't want it."

Commenting on the security pretexts Israel repeatedly cites, Tirawi said it is the Palestinians not the Israelis who should be worried about their security, because Israel possesses all types of weapons, while the Palestinians are seeking to establish a demilitarized state.

Direct negotiations began in July between Israel and the Palestinians in a US-led attempt to restart the deadlocked peace process. Israel has announced plans to build thousands of homes in illegal settlements across the West Bank over the course of the talks, inhibiting US efforts.

The Palestinian negotiating team resigned in protest against continued Israeli settlement construction in mid-November, dealing a major blow to negotiations between Israel and the PLO that had already been stalled.

The internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West Bank and East Jerusalem form a part have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.