Abbas blasts Netanyahu’s pledge to extend sovereignty over settlements

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman of PA President Mahmoud Abbas

Adam Rasgon writes in Times of Israel, “Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman, on Sunday censured a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he repeated a pledge to apply Israeli sovereignty over settlements in the West Bank. “This matter is a continuation of the attempts to create an unacceptable status quo that will not lead to peace, security and stability,” the spokesman said in a statement, according to the official PA news site Wafa. “The settlement building policy, attempts to achieve cost-free normalization in violation of the Arab Peace Initiative, and efforts to erode the two state solution are rejected and condemned.”

“Addressing elementary school students Sunday morning in the Elkana settlement, Netanyahu echoed a promise he had made days before the last national elections in April: “With the help of God we will apply Jewish sovereignty to all communities, as part of the Land of Israel, and as part of the State of Israel.” A spokesman for the prime minister later clarified that Netanyahu was referring to Jewish communities in the West Bank.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting schoolkids in the West Bank settlement of Elkana on the first day of school, September 1, 2019

“The premier also told the students that no more settlements will be evacuated, as happened in 2005 when the Israeli civilian presence in the Gaza Strip — known collectively as Gush Katif — and parts of the northern West Bank was removed.” (more…)