Palestinians see no reason to negotiate as Israeli settlements continue
As international efforts intensify to resume the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Palestinians feel that discussions will go nowhere as long as the Israeli government sticks to its policy of settlement expansion.
There are growing Arab and international calls to revive the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that stopped after Israel refused to release the fourth batch of prisoners incarcerated before the Oslo Accord on March 29, 2014.
The resumption of negotiations was discussed in Geneva during the June 6 meeting of the Quartet on the Middle East, which includes Russia, the European Union, the United States and the United Nations. The meeting was preceded by a May 20 meeting between EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
Mogherini said during the meeting that the European Union is committed to finding ways to relaunch the peace process, and that she will hold meetings with officials in the region to that end.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told Al-Monitor that despite these international efforts, and although the Palestinian Authority (PA) has shown its commitment to the peace process, the PA is nevertheless demanding that Israel fulfill its obligations as stipulated in the Oslo Accord and the subsequent agreements reached through US Secretary of State John Kerry’s initiative to resume the negotiations.
