On Wednesday, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry rejected statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, regarding the Palestinian issue, before he met with US President Joe Biden, as “hostile to peace.”
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Bennett ruled out signing a peace agreement with the Palestinians or the establishment of a Palestinian state during his reign, during an interview with the American newspaper “The New York Times”, coinciding with his start of a visit to Washington on Tuesday evening.
The Israeli Prime Minister also pledged to continue the “natural growth” of the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, and considered that “Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, it is not the capital of any other people.”
Commenting on this, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Bennett’s statements were “a persistence in the aggression against the Palestinian people.”
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It added that Bennett’s statements were “hostile to peace, and an attempt to absorb any American pressure, criticism, or advice regarding Palestinian-Israeli relations and settlements.”
It pointed out that these statements are considered “a disregard for the declared US positions towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry considered these statements “a deliberate sabotage of Arab, American and international efforts aimed at creating positive atmospheres for launching real negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides.”
It said: “It is clear that Bennett is trying to shuffle the cards to influence the US and international foreign policy priorities for the region, to marginalize the Palestinian cause by raising the pace of attention to other regional factors.”
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Bennett is scheduled to meet at the White House with US President Joe Biden on Thursday for the first time since taking office as prime minister of Israel on June 13.
