RAMALLAH, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Knesset (parliament) vote on the "unified Jerusalem law" is considered as an extension of U.S. President Donald Trump's decision, Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, said on Tuesday.
In his statement to official Voice of Palestine radio, Erekat said "the Israeli Knesset vote on the law and the Likud decision to impose Israeli sovereignty on the West Bank are an outcome of Trump's decision on Jerusalem as capital of Israel on 6th of last December."
Erekat said that this is a part of new U.S.-Israeli collaboration to dictate a solution and destroy the two-state principle, pointing out that President Mahmoud Abbas outlined the Palestinian strategy to face these acts that seek to liquidate the Palestinian cause, which requires ending the division and returning unity to the homeland.
The PLO official stressed that the leadership will defeat all U.S. and Israeli attempts by acting to obtain full United Nations membership for the state of Palestine as well as by going to the UN Security Council, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court to face all these plans aimed at liquidating the Palestinian national project.
"The current U.S. administration adopted the positions of the Israeli occupation and adopted a different approach from the positions of the previous U.S. administrations, which were committed to the two-state solution over the past decades," Erekat stressed.
He pointed out that "this change began with the vote in the U.S. congress to cut aid for the state of Palestine, closing the PLO's Washington office and then the Trump declaration on Jerusalem that reshaped Palestinian-U.S. relations."
Erekat added that 36 meetings have been held with the U.S. administration aimed at reaching a serious peace process but the United States has breached all their commitments. In reaction to this, Abbas responded by saying that this administration is no longer part of the solution but part of the problem.
Earlier on Monday, Israeli Knesset approved the "unified Jerusalem" bill provided for separating Palestinian neighborhoods from Jerusalem. It requires the approval of 80 of its members for any decision to hand over parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinian authority in the future.
The Knesset approval came a day after Israel's ruling Likud party overwhelmingly approved a draft resolution that calls on Israeli lawmakers to agree on annexing Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, which was officially condemned by the Palestinians.
