Ramallah – Ma‘an – Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member and head of the Palestinian National Initiative party Mustafa Barghouthi on Wednesday said that the Israeli decision to confiscate thousands of hectares of land from Abu Dis, As Sawahira ash Sharqiya and Nabi Mousa, east of Jerusalem, for an Israeli road, is part of a plan to separate the Jordan Valley from the West Bank.
The Jordan Valley comprises around 24% of the West Bank. Barghouthi said that Israel intends to annex this area and completely separate Jerusalem from the West Bank.
Israel, says Barghouthi, aims to divide the West Bank into scattered Bantustans, devoid of geographical contiguity, in order to prevent a viable Palestinian state and to maintain the scattered areas under Israeli control, with the PA serving solely as an agent of Israel.
Barghouthi said that the Israeli decision is part of a continuation of previous decisions to confiscate thousands of hectares of Palestinian land in Bethlehem area, bordering the Gush ‘Etzion settlement bloc.
Barghouthi highlighted the disparity between the public declarations for a peace process and the killing and the destruction on the ground, which prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Barghouthi requested that the Palestinian Authority sets three preconditions to be met before the US-sponsored autumn peace summit. These are: halting settlement activity, dismantling of the land-annexation wall and revoking the decision to make the Gaza Strip an ‘enemy entity‘.