The Palestinian leadership decided on Thursday evening in an urgent meeting chaired by PA President Mahmoud Abbas to suspend the agreements signed with Israel and to form a committee to implement this, under the decision of the Palestinian Central Council.
However, the Palestinian opposition, which initially welcomed the resolution, now has doubts saying such decisions had also been made in the past and had not been implemented.
Member of Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Ahmed Majdalani announced that the committee charged with implementing the mechanisms of this resolution will meet to take practical measures.
Majdalani said in a press statement Saturday that the committee would be composed of members of the PLO’s Executive Committee, Fatah's Central Committee and the government and it will draw up concrete mechanisms with a specific timeline for the implementation of the leadership’s decision.
Majdalani said that the committee is of a specialized nature, adding that the government will have the bigger burden in the implementation of the most important part of this decision and what is related to the economic dimension.
He stressed that the decision taken by the leadership establishes for a new stage and must be built on in drawing up strategies for the gradual disengagement with the occupation.
"We are at a new stage that also requires from us the unity of position and national line, which means ending the division.”
For their part, the Israelis also did not take the decision seriously.
The committee’s meeting was postponed following the Tunisian President’s death, and Abbas’ decision to participate in the funeral.
Hamas politburo member Musa Abu Marzouk said that the decision to stop all agreements signed with the occupation is a step that reflects the orientations of the Palestinian people, who seek freedom and independence. But he said in a tweet that Abbas' announcement needed practical steps.
Member of the political bureau of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Talal Abu Zarifa, welcomed the leadership's decision. He urged the quick implementation of it in the face of the occupation and provide the serious political will to protect these decisions and their implementation by ending division and restoring national unity to tackle the deal of the century.
Secretary-General of the National Initiative Mustafa Barghouti welcomed the decision saying it is a natural response to the occupation and its extreme right-wing government, adding that all responses were supportive of the resolution.
Barghouti stressed the need to have national unity in the face of plans to liquidate the Palestinian cause, calling for rising the popular confrontation and boycott movement against the occupation.
"The decision of the leadership is fundamental to the conflict with the occupation, which continues to break all agreements through arrest, displacement and demolition, and not to recognize the classifications of the territories and the continued invasion of West Bank cities.
In other news, executive director at Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth criticized the policy of the US administration led by President Donald Trump in supporting and encouraging Israel's repressive policy.
Roth told AFP Trump had provided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the protection he needed to crack down on criticism of the state’s human rights record.
“Would the Netanyahu government have tried to expel Omar Shakir without Trump in the White House? I doubt it. I think Trump has given a green light to whatever Netanyahu wants to do,” Roth said.
“You can’t appeal to Trump to promote human rights when he is so busy embracing autocrats around the world.”
Israel says it is seeking to expel Shakir based largely on comments he made before joining Human Rights Watch (HRW) in which he praised the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls for a boycott of Israel.
HRW does not advocate BDS and Roth said the attempt to expel Omar, who is of Iraqi descent, was a clear attempt to quash criticism.
“It was so clear to us when this case was brought against Omar that this had nothing to do with Omar. Omar was just an easy target because of his ethnicity, because of some of the advocacy he did back in his college days.
“If you look at what Omar has done and said the entire time he has been at HRW, it has been 100 percent HRW’s position.”
He said by trying to expel Shakir, Israel was joining a “very ugly group” of countries that harass HRW, including North Korea and Iran.
