The Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee has reportedly decided last night to revoke its recognition of Israel, until the Israeli leadership would recognize a Palestinian state within the pre-1967-borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. The PLO’s Central Committee, which is currently convening in the West Bank city of Ramallah, passed a resolution on the matter, in light of what it claimed was “Israel’s ongoing repudiation of (past) signed agreements.” The Central Committee, which is the most powerful body within the PLO, further called on its Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, to suspend all aspects of the ongoing security coordination with Israel, to implement mechanisms that would separate the Palestinians from Israel completely, and adopt a series of measures that will ultimately enact an independent Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, a summary statement that was released last night after two days of meetings announced that the PLO Central Council has decided to empower Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO Executive Committee to implement the adopted decisions. That said, a Palestinian source who attended the meetings told TV7 that the adopted resolutions, which he referred to as “recommendations to President Mahmoud Abbas” would not be implemented immediately. The Palestinian official, who spoke to TV7 on condition of anonymity, explained that a committee was formed that includes representatives of the PLO, the Palestinian security organizations and Palestinian Authority, to provide President Mahmoud Abbas with practical measures to advance the Central Council’s decisions. That said, the source underscored that the ultimate decision to adopt the committee’s recommendations would remain within the dominion of President Mahmoud Abbas, who rejected past attempts by the Palestine Liberation Organization to end a long-functioning coordination mechanism between the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and Israel’s Security Establishment. The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem did not immediately respond to TV7’s request for comment. That said, a senior Israeli official told TV7 that the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah continues to voice rhetoric, empty of substance, to appease its population. The Israeli official underlined that while the security coordination between Ramallah and Jerusalem is unpopular among the Palestinian population, it is vital to the survival of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. He explained that the ongoing Palestinian coordination with Israel is primarily focused on advancing preventative-measures against the Islamist Hamas organization in the West Bank, which has time-and-again attempted to topple the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.