Israeli official agreed on 1967 borders in secret talks with Abbas: Report
An Israeli opposition leader agreed to return to Israel’s 1967 borders in secret talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2014, says a report by Israel’s television.
During the 2014-2015 election cycle in Israel, Isaac Herzog, the leader of Zionist Union, agreed to hand over the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem) back to Palestinians, according to Israel’s Channel 10.
The report was considered by some as an attack against Herzog in the wake of his row with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the ruling party.
The agreement, negotiated between Herzog’s delegate, Efraim Sneh, and an unnamed Palestinian representative, was made as part of a peace deal for the future.
“I learned that there is someone to talk with, something to talk about, and that we can arrive at understandings on everything,” Sneh said of the negotiations.
Since Netanyahu managed to defeat Herzog in the election, the negotiations stalled, Sneh claimed.
Herzog had accepted full withdrawal to the 1967 borders although land swaps had also been discussed over four percent the territory.
He had also promised to provide financial compensation for the majority of Palestinian refugees.
Palestinian officials have not yet commented on the matter.
The leader of the center-left party admitted to holding the talks, saying, “Most peace agreements came after a difficult round of bloodshed between peoples fighting each other. The right always offers us war and then runs to sign peace treaties. We are just offering to reverse the order.”
Netanyahu, who leads the center-right Likud party, has on various occasions rejected any notion that the Israeli regime should even consider withdrawing from territories it seized in 1967.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been expelled from their homeland to the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as countries in the region and worldwide since the 1948 Israeli occupation.
Consequently, the Israeli regime has encouraged the immigration of Jews from all over the world to the occupied Palestinian lands.
Tel Aviv has also been busy constructing illegal settlements beyond the 1967 borders.
The UN and most countries regard the settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.
Despite that, the regime has kept up with its expansive policies, the latest sign of which was Sunday approval of $18 million in extra funding for the illegal settlements.
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