Palestine trashes Netanyahu's offer of self-rule with Israeli security

Palestine has rejected Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial offer of self-rule with security of the occupied Palestinian lands to remain in Israel's hands.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said on Saturday restoring the Palestinian rights is the key to security and peace in the Middle East, a day after Netanyahu pitched the offer. 

"The Palestinian people have the right to establish their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, which is the basis for achieving a just peace based on international legitimacy resolutions," Abu Rudeineh said in a statement cited by WAFA news agency.

"There will be no peace with the policy of annexation and apartheid. There will be no peace as long as the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people continues," he added.

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'Tired of Israeli positions'

The Palestinian spokesperson said the world is "tired" of such Israeli positions on the Middle East peacemaking.

On Thursday, Netanyahu said in an interview with the Washington-based National Public Radio (NPR) that he would offer Palestinians self-rule with security issues in Israel’s hands.

"Palestinians have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten our life, which means that security, in whatever political arrangements we'll have, realistically will have to remain in Israel's hands," he said.

Peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis collapsed in April 2014 as Tel Aviv refused to stop illegal settlement building and release Palestinian detainees imprisoned before 1993.

Palestine warns that Netanyahu's upcoming government will be the most radical in terms of dealing with them, expanding illegal settlements construction across the occupied West Bank and violations against the flashpoint Al Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.

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Israeli occupation

Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza during the 1967 Middle East War. It annexed the entire East Jerusalem city in 1980, claiming it as Israel's "eternal" capital — a move never recognised by the international community.

It pulled back from Gaza — densely populated with 2.3 million people — in 2005 and has since then maintained a harsh blockade from land, sea and air on the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Palestine sees those territories as part of its country, with East Jerusalem its heartland and ultimate capital.

International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territory" and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity on the land to be illegal.

Palestinians accuse Israel of waging an aggressive campaign to "Judaize" the historic city by effacing its Arab and Islamic identity and driving out its Palestinian inhabitants.

Almost 500,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in over 130 settlements dotting the occupied West Bank alongside nearly three million Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.

The international community views a two-state solution as the only realistic way to resolve the century-old conflict.

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