The government of Palestine has relinquished the nation’s right to take the rotating presidency of the Arab League in protest of recent deals to normalize relations between the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Israel.
Local reports have it that Palestinians see the deals that the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed with Israel in Washington recently as a betrayal of their cause and a blow to their quest for an independent state in Israeli-occupied territory.
Recall that recently, the Palestinians failed to persuade the Arab League to condemn nations breaking ranks and normalizing relations with Israel.
Palestine was supposed to chair Arab League meetings for the next six months, but Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told a news conference in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah that it no longer wanted the position.
Maliki said “Palestine has decided to concede its right to chair the League’s council
at its current session. There is no honour in seeing Arabs rush towards normalisation during its presidency”.
The Minister, who did not specifically name the UAE and Bahrain, Gulf Arab countries that share with Israel concern over Iran, said Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit had been informed of the Palestinian decision.
The Nigerian Canadian Newspaper gathered that the Palestinian leadership wants an independent state based on the de facto borders before the 1967 war, in which Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and annexed East Jerusalem.
Arab countries have long called for Israel’s withdrawal from illegally occupied land, a just solution for Palestinian refugees and a settlement that leads to the establishment of a viable, independent Palestinian state, in exchange for establishing ties with it
