AMMAN: Senior Palestinian leaders feel that they have finally made headway in their efforts to get the Israeli government to deal politically with their aspirations.
Hussein Al-Sheikh, a senior official in President Mahmoud Abbas’s administration, who met with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Jan. 23, told Arab News that their hour-long meeting in Tel Aviv was successful.
“We broke the ice with the Israeli coalition government’s total refusal to deal politically with the aspirations of the Palestinian people. The discussion was all political and was focused on the need for providing Palestinians with a political horizon,” he said.
Al-Sheikh who was recently nominated by Fatah to replace Saeb Erekat on the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, told Arab News he feels confident of the important, albeit small, steps being taken.
“This was a humble small step in the direction of moving things closer and closer to the political issues,” Al-Sheikh said.
“While Palestinians need humanitarian and economic support, nothing replaces the need for an end to the occupation,” he added.
“What we need more than economic support is a mechanism that can provide freedom for our people and an end to the Israeli occupation.”
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the Palestine Central Council is due to meet on Feb. 6 to elect a new speaker and a new executive committee, as well as to chart the political direction of the Palestinian struggle.
Speaking to Arab News, Al-Sheikh said that he reiterated the Palestinian position, stressing the need for a political Israeli-Palestinian meeting, based on international law, under the auspices of the Quartet, which is made up of the US, EU, Russia and the UN.
According to Al-Sheikh, Lapid, who is due to become Israel’s prime minister in 2023, supports the two-state solution.
“Although he stated that things are complicated due to the nature of the coalition agreement, he is in support of negotiations to reach the two-state solution,” Al-Sheikh said.
“Lapid didn’t repeat his earlier statement that when he becomes prime minister, he would not change the current policies of the (Premier Naftali) Bennett administration,” he said.
Al-Sheikh said he briefed Abbas and the Palestinian leadership about the outcome of the meeting.
“What we talked about is what the Palestinian president and our leadership have been calling for. Any meeting with the Israelis that touches on political issues makes things move in a positive direction,” he said.
Al-Sheikh said the meeting concluded with an agreement to hold further talks, though no specific date or place for them was agreed.
