Palestinian officials will not attend a US-led economic conference in Bahrain next month, a Palestinian cabinet minister said on Monday.
Social Development Minister Ahmed Majdalani, who is also a member of the executive committee of the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organisation, told Reuters:
“There will be no Palestinian participation in the Manama workshop … Any Palestinian who would take part would be nothing but a collaborator for the Americans and Israel.”
The Palestinians will not attend a United States-led conference in Bahrain next month that the Trump administration has cast as a preliminary roll-out of its “deal of the century” for them to make peace with Israel, a Palestinian cabinet minister said.https://t.co/EYfjOJR33e
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) May 20, 2019
The Trump administrations long-awaited blueprint for Middle East peace – known as “The Deal of the Century” – will be unveiled at the conference.
The plan, which has been two years in the making, envisions large-scale investment and infrastructure work in the Palestinian territories but the central political elements remain mostly unknown.
The economic workshop, set for June 25-26 in Bahrain, will not address the most contentious parts of the conflict: borders, the status of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and Israel’s security.
Why are Palestinians refusing “economic peace” with Israel?https://t.co/ooB48NOInG
— TRT World (@trtworld) May 21, 2019
The Palestinian leadership has also said they were not consulted about the conference in Bahrain.
Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told Palestinian ministers:
“The cabinet wasn’t consulted about the reported workshop, neither over the content, nor the outcome nor timing.”
The Trump administration has said the deal and the conference will focus on economic benefits that could be reaped if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved.
'This is not a peace plan': Palestinians shun Bahrain conferencehttps://t.co/Kwzp5KTHn1 # Peace plan under Trump, Natanyahu or Gulf States will not succeed they want to sell Palestine to Israel
— mohamed omar (@mohamed18243187) May 21, 2019
The Palestinians, who severed ties with the US over a year ago, have repeatedly expressed fears that the White House will try to buy them off with large sums of investment in exchange for freezing their demands for an independent state. They believe the US is trying to rally support from other Arab countries to bully them into accepting a plan they see as unacceptable.
(Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, PC, Social Media)
