Erekat: EU support of Palestinian bid preserves peace process

The European Union (EU's) support of the Palestinian bid in September to seek full United Nations membership of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders, maintains the option of two states and preserves the peace process, Wednesday said Saeb Erekat, member of the PLO Executive Committee. In meetings with Denmark's Permanent Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Claus Grube, and the Consul General of France in Jerusalem, Frédéric Desagneaux, Erekat stressed the Israeli government’s full responsibility for the failure in the peace and negotiations process, due to its insistence on continuing with settlement activities particularly in East Jerusalem, its policy of “creating facts on the ground” and its attempts to change the international terms of reference set for the peace process. He affirmed that the PLO bid to the UN does not form the Palestinian strategy but is part of this strategy, which aims to return the state of Palestine with its 1967 borders back to the map. Erekat added: “While the Palestinian leadership and the international community are seeking to end the Israeli occupation and establish the independent state of Palestine, the Israeli government continues to make every possible effort to keep the situation as it is through the perpetuation of the occupation and keeping it under different nomenclatures.”