Palestinians need civil disobedience

Member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation's (PLO) executive committee Taysseer Khaled insists Israel is not interested in making efforts to boost the Palestinian peace process. The politician cited Israel's legitimisation of indiscriminate settlement points in Palestinian territories as a sign of their non-commitment to establishing dialogue. "Israel has received dozens of delegations from the United States and the European Union to discuss bids of building more settlements. This is clear evidence of provocation on their part," said Khaled. The PLO member also voiced his frustration about the Palestinian leadership's "slow" reaction to Israeli policies, saying they didn't pose enough pressure on Israel to stop legitimising the settlements and violating other rights. "The Palestinian reaction towards the Israeli violations must match the seriousness of the crimes. The sole choice we have now is to put this issue (the settlement activities) on the UN Security Council's table, not only as an obstacle to the peace process, but also as a war crime," said Khaled.  He called for what he described as a "total civil disobedience" to disable any links between the Palestinian people and the Israeli administration and to activate public resistance against settlements and the "racist" separation wall being built by Israel. Khaled also commented on the message sent recently by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, saying the time was over for relying on what Netanyahu can offer to the peace process. Khaled said he expected the message to include only cordial greetings, an offer to get back to negotiations without any conditions, respecting Israel security requirements and vowing not to resort to the UN or any other international organisations. Khaled cited Israel's most recent decree of legitimising three settlement points in the West Bank, describing the move as "illegal and supportive of extremist settlers". "This is not the first time Israel has officiated settlement points, as this policy has been adopted by the Zionist state since dozens of years," he said. "We are used to extremist settlers stealing our lands, then the Israeli occupation legitimises this violation," said Khaled.  The Palestinian leader said he considered the settlement decree as Israel's response to Abass's message.  The Israeli government earlier also legitimised three settlements built during the nineties on land which was reportedly the personal property of Palestinian citizens. The settlements are in Bruchin, Rechelim and Sansana.