PLO plans to end all security cooperation with Israel: Officials

The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) has decided to end all security cooperation with Israel, Palestinian officials say.

According to reports on Thursday, the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) of the PLO, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, made the decision to cut all forms of security cooperation with Israel after two-day discussions in Ramallah.

“Security coordination in all its forms with the authority of the Israeli occupation will be stopped in the light of its (Israel’s) non-compliance with the agreements signed between the two sides,” the PCC, the second highest Palestinian decision-making body, said in a statement.

Tel Aviv “should shoulder all its responsibilities towards the Palestinian people in the occupied state of Palestine as an occupation authority according to international law,” the statement read.

The statement also called on the United Nations Security Council to “determine a deadline to end the Israeli occupation and ensure that the state of Palestine is enabled to practice its sovereignty on its land occupied since 1967, including its capital east Jerusalem and, resolve the issue of refugees according to resolution 194.”

Resolution 194 was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1948, near the end of the Arab-Israeli War, calling for a final settlement and the returning of Palestinian refugees to their homes.

“The concept of a Jewish state is rejected and also of a (Palestinian) state with provisional borders is rejected. Any formula that will keep an Israeli military or settler presence on any part of the land of the state of Palestine is rejected,” the PCC statement read.

“Gangster” regime

At the opening of the two-day talks, attended by officials from the PCC, on Wednesday, Abbas (pictured below) denounced a decision by the Israeli regime to withhold Palestinian tax revenues worth more than $100 million a month.

“How are they allowed to take away our money? Are we dealing with a state or with a gangster?” he asked.

The two-day meetings, attended by legislators, union leaders, and other figures, focused on a review of interim agreements with the Israelis.

In response to Palestinian efforts to finally attain membership at the International Criminal Court (ICC), Tel Aviv announced a freeze on the revenues transfer in January.

Palestinians are continuing efforts to file war crime charges against the regime at the ICC.

The Palestinian president further called the tax freeze a provocation, noting that “peaceful, popular resistance is the only way for us” in the fight against Israel.

Abbas also asked “all countries of the world to recognize the state of Palestine.”

“But we want to say to the Israeli side, these recognitions do not mean in any way that we do not want to negotiate, or that we're running away from negotiations,” Abbas said, adding that talks would continue with “whoever” wins the Israeli general elections on March 17.

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