Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas May Turn to The Hague If Talks Sputter

Image by getty images

By Jack Khoury (Haaretz) March 27, 2013

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called in a speech Tuesday for the Arab League to appeal to the UN and to the international community in an attempt to “stop Israel’s settlement policy in the West Bank, with an emphasis on East Jerusalem.”

Speaking at the Arab League summit in Doha, Abbas informed the heads of Arab countries about his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama last weekend in Ramallah. He relayed that he told Obama that the Palestinians continue to insist on the establishment of a Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

A delegation representing the Arab League is scheduled to arrive in Washington in the coming weeks for a meeting with senior government officials. They are slated to discuss ideas for renewing peace talks based on two chief principles: A predetermined timetable for talks and operational decisions for ending the occupation and facilitating the establishment of a Palestinian state along 1967 borders, with a capital in East Jerusalem.

A Palestinian official involved in the Doha talks told Haaretz that if after three to four months Arab delegates and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry fail to come up with ways to renew peace negotiations, the Palestinians reserve the right to turn to the International Criminal Court in Hague.

For more, go to Haaretz

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO