Abu Dis As a Palestinian Capital?
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
Reportedly, the idea is part of a Trump administration sham peace plan.
Palestinians won’t ever accept abandoning East Jerusalem as their legitimate capital, a small village substituting as a capital of a bantustan state, amounting to one in name only.
The proposal isn’t a peace plan. It’s a prescription for endless conflict, chaos, and denial of fundamental rights for a long-beleaguered people.
Former Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh said he was told about the Trump administration’s sham proposal. More on this below.
Abu Dis is a Palestinian village bordering Jerusalem - in Area B under joint Israeli/Palestinian control.
Israel, of course, controls the Occupied Territories with an iron fist, the Palestinian Authority (PA) created as an enforcer for its ruthless rule.
Israel’s Apartheid Wall when completed will border Abu Dis from the north, west and east, the eastern portion to separate the village’s urban and rural areas, removing thousands of dunams of arable land from its jurisdiction.
The western portion of the wall divides Abu Dis from Jerusalem, access to the Holy City prohibited without Israeli hard to get permit permission for Palestinian men under age-55 and women under age-50.
Abu Dis and other area villages lack access to medical care, schools and enough employment for its people.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Israel’s Apartheid Wall severely disrupts access for Palestinians to vital services and employment throughout the West Bank.
It has nothing to do with Israeli security, everything to do with persecuting Palestinians and land theft - about 10 -12% of West Bank land when completed.
Haniyeh said the Trump administration proposed connecting Abu Dis by bridge to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and compound.
The plan reportedly involves dividing the West Bank into three sections, along with establishing Gaza as an autonomous area, maintaining illegal blockade.
“The recent US decision on Jerusalem is part of ongoing efforts to terminate the Palestinian cause within the context of a so-called ‘deal of the century,’ “ Haniyeh explained, adding:
The unacceptable scheme “has implications for the reconfiguration of the entire region…which will come at the expense of Jerusalem and Palestinian rights.”
Under Oslo, East Jerusalem was to be the capital of a future Palestinian state. Suggesting Abu Dis instead shows outrageous contempt for the rights of an entire population.
During Abbas’ Riyadh visit earlier this month, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) presented the idea of Palestinian statehood without sovereignty.
It would be without East Jerusalem as its capital, a pseudo-state surrounded by expanding settlements encroaching on Palestinian land, stealing it, with barriers they’re forbidden to approach, ghettoizing them.
Jerusalem would become Israel’s exclusive capital, East Jerusalem increasingly off-limits to them. Diaspora Palestinians would have no right of return.
Israel would be free to exploit Palestinian resources they way things are today.
Trump, Netanyahu and MBS apparently conspired against long-suffering Palestinians - the proposed scheme no responsible leadership would accept.
PLO and Hamas officials consider the scheme insulting and unacceptable.
Senior Hamas official Hassan Yousef said “(i)f the Palestinian leadership were to accept” MBS’ proposal, “the Palestinian people would not let them remain.”
Abbas was reportedly told to accept the plan or resign. Weeks earlier, the NYT said “the main points of the Saudi proposal as told to Mr. Abbas were confirmed by many people briefed on the discussions between” him and MBS.
The notion of a Palestinian pseudo-state without East Jerusalem as its capital, no right of return, no control over its resources, no halt in settlement construction, continued theft of its land and dispossession of its people, along with their rights under international law denied amounts to continued occupation and subjugation.
Trump’s Jerusalem declaration plunged a dagger into the heart of the moribund peace process, added proof that Washington can never be an honest broker for anything.
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