A member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee has predicted that a possible decision to suspend security and economic ties with Israel will make it impossible for the Palestinian National Council (PNC) to hold a meeting planned for next February.

Hanna Amireh told Al-Monitor that plans are set to hold the Palestinian parliament in exile late February or early March 2016. “But if certain decisions are made, especially in relation to security and economic relations with Israel, then it is unlikely that the PNC will meet," he said. "Israel will most likely take measures that will prevent us from having enough people to attend, and as a result we will not have a quorum.”

Amireh, who is also a member of the political bureau of the Palestinian People’s Party, said that hard choices regarding security cooperation with Israel have not yet been fully agreed on out of fear of Israeli retribution. He told Al-Monitor, “There are some, for example, who expect that Israel will place a full siege on all Palestinian areas and separate them from each other and that Israel will confiscate all Palestinian funds, which are the right of the Palestinian people, and that the Israeli army will reoccupy all areas.”

He said that it is unlikely that Hamas and Islamic Jihad members will attend the upcoming meetings because of the unresolved conflict between the leading Palestinian groups, and noted that the Palestinians are planning to decide soon on going to the UN Security Council with a new resolution through the Arab League.