JERUSALEM: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan the “slap of the century” on Tuesday as thousands of Palestinians held protests in Gaza and the West Bank.
Hamas said it would confront Trump’s “aggressive” proposals and accused him of talking “nonsense” about Jerusalem. On the international stage, Turkey and Iran issued some of the strongest condemnations, with the first branding the plan "stillborn" and the latter describing it as "doomed to fail".
Qatar said it welcomed efforts to broker "longstanding and just peace" but warned that was unattainable without concessions to the Palestinians. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia says both parties to the conflict should talk directly to find a solution, international media reported.
Confounding some predictions, Trump’s plan proposed a “two-state” solution to the decades-long conflict, which envisages Israel and a future Palestinian state living alongside each other, with conditions. The plan would see a Palestinian state with its capital in “eastern Jerusalem”, though in an area cut off from much of the city by an Israeli military barrier.
Palestinians reject any proposal that would not seea Palestinian capital in all of East Jerusalem, which includes the walled Old City and numerous sites holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians. Trump, in his remarks at the White House earlier on Tuesday, said that Jerusalem would remain the undivided capital of Israel.
“I say to Trump and (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu: Jerusalem is not for sale, all our rights are not for sale and are not for bargain. And your deal, the conspiracy, will not pass,” Abbas said in a televised address in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Abbas said it was “impossible for any Palestinian, Arab, Muslim or Christian child to accept” a state without Jerusalem. Israel captured the eastern part of the city along with the West Bank and Gaza in a 1967 war.
The Palestinians would only accept negotiations based on international law and supported by UN Security Council resolutions, said Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority has limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank.
The plan proposes setting up a Palestinian capital in the urban sprawl to the north and east of a concrete wall that Israel built through East Jerusalem more than a decade ago, during the last Palestinian uprising.
“This physical barrier should remain in place and should serve as a border between the capitals of the two parties,” the document says.
Hamas, whose stronghold is in Gaza, was scathing. “Trump’s statement is aggressive and it will spark a lot of anger,” Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said.
“Trump’s statement about Jerusalem is nonsense and Jerusalem will always be a land for the Palestinians ... The Palestinians will confront this deal and Jerusalem will remain a Palestinian land,” Abu Zuhri added.
In Gaza City, Palestinians burned tyres and chanted: “Trump is a fool”. “We came here to reject this deal, the American deal of shame. The United States is responsible for all destruction in the Arab world,” said Tamer Al-Madhoun, a protester.
Warning of “widespread calls for demonstrations”, the US Embassy in Jerusalem moved to restrict US government employees and their families from travelling to much of Jerusalem’s Old City, which sits in the city’s east, as well as several Palestinian cities and areas of the occupied West Bank.
Meanwhile, Saudi Foreign Ministry highlighted in a statement its appreciation of efforts of the US to develop a comprehensive peace plan between the Palestinian and the Israeli sides, and encouraged the start of direct peace negotiations between them.
The ministry noted that the kingdom has been at the forefront of the efforts in support of Palestinian people, among which was the presentation of the Arab Peace Initiative in 2002, which stressed that a military solution to the conflict has not brought peace or security to any party, and the comprehensive and just peace is a strategic option.
Meanwhile, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud stressed on a phone call on Wednesday to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas the kingdom's steadfast stance on the Palestinian issue and the rights of the Palestinian people. For his part, Abbas expressed his appreciation to the Saudi king for his keenness and interest in the Palestinian cause, and for its consistent and supportive stances towards Palestine and its people.
