[Politics] After the meeting between Abbas and Gantz, Bennett denies the existence of a political process with the Palestinians, Hamas and Islamic Jihad deplore

[Love Pulse]

 

 

 

Today, Monday, Israeli media quoted a source close to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as saying that "there is no political process with the Palestinians, and there will not be such a process", the day after a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz in Ramallah in the West Bank. Western.

The reports quoted the source as saying that the meeting took place with the prior approval of Bennett, and covered "routine issues between the defense establishment and the Palestinian Authority."

Read also
During a phone call, the Israeli president calls on Abbas to resume dialogue
They became more than 5 demonstrators and he did not resign.. Will Mahmoud Abbas fulfill his promise?
Le Monde: Palestine... Shame on you, Mahmoud Abbas!
The Israeli occupation begins implementing a new Judaization project in the Ibrahimi Mosque
This is the highest announced meeting between Abbas and an Israeli official in more than 10 years.

"We discussed the security and economic situation in the West Bank and Gaza, and agreed to continue communication on the issues raised during the meeting," Gantz wrote on Twitter after the meeting.

And the Israeli Defense Minister's office said in a statement that Gantz told Abbas - at the meeting - that Israel would take measures to support the Palestinian economy.

The statement said that they also "discussed dealing with the security and economic situation in the West Bank and Gaza... and agreed to continue contacts on the issues raised during the meeting."

Hussein al-Sheikh, a member of the Central Committee of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), said, "All aspects of Palestinian-Israeli relations were discussed."

condemnation
In the first Palestinian reactions, the Islamic resistance movements, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, denounced on Monday the Abbas-Gantz meeting.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a press statement, "The meeting of PA President Mahmoud Abbas with Zionist War Minister Benny Gantz is deplorable and rejected by all patriots, and deviates from the national spirit of our Palestinian people."

He added, "Such meetings are a continuation of the illusion of the Palestinian Authority leadership in Ramallah that anything can be accomplished for our Palestinian people through the failed settlement process."

He pointed out that this behavior deepens the Palestinian political division and complicates the Palestinian situation.

Qassem said that these meetings between the leadership of the authority and the occupation encourage some parties in the region that want to normalize with the occupation, and weaken the Palestinian position that rejects normalization.

For its part, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement condemned the meeting, and the movement's spokesman, Tariq Selmi, said - in a press statement - that the meeting of Abbas and Gantz, which came on the impact of the crimes of the occupation, its siege and its aggression, is a stab to our people.

He added that the blood of the children killed by the occupation army on the orders of Gantz is still on the ground and has not dried yet.

In Israel, the religious Zionism party affiliated with the settlers in the occupied West Bank attacked the meeting between Gantz and Abbas.

A statement issued by the party said that the attempt by Bennett and his entourage to downplay the importance of the meeting will not succeed in concealing the truth, which is that the Israeli government is bringing Abu Mazen back to the fore after the right-wing in Israel succeeded over the years in making him irrelevant to the political arena, and slowly suffocating him. He went through the political option with the Palestinians, and succeeded in taking it off the table.

The statement added that the Bennett government does not know red lines in its quest for political survival, artificially revitalizes the Palestinian president, and brings international pressure on Israel to succumb, withdraw and divide the country, as the statement put it.

Peace talks between the two sides collapsed in 2014, but over the past year, Israel reached normalization agreements with a number of Arab countries under American auspices.

Bennett, who heads an ultra-nationalist party, opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, but given the make-up of his ruling coalition, any sensitive political decisions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be difficult.

The Ramallah meeting came two days after Bennett met with US President Joe Biden at the White House, during which Biden reiterated his support for the two-state solution.