Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Barghouti, said on Saturday that Israel aims to eliminate Palestine, “not divide it and nibble it apart.”
This came during Barghouti’s speech at a symposium on the sidelines of a conference called “Reimagining Palestine” organized by Georgetown University in the Qatari capital, Doha.
Barghouti stressed during the symposium that the decision regarding the political future of Palestine must be in the hands of the Palestinians themselves.
He pointed out that “the Palestinian people must hold their own elections democratically, and the Palestinians alone should decide the future of their country. It is not the task of Israel or any authority outside Palestine to decide who will lead them.”
Netanyahu is not honest
Regarding the negotiations between the Israeli government and Hamas, Barghouti expressed his belief that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not sincere in the ceasefire negotiations with Hamas.
“Israel is pushing the ceasefire negotiations towards the abyss by proposing new conditions that it knows no Palestinian will accept,” he added.
He stressed that the main goal of Netanyahu and Israel is to eliminate any possibility of a ceasefire, and drag the entire region into war.
With the mediation of Egypt and Qatar, and the support of the United States, Israel and Hamas have been conducting indirect negotiations for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange for months, but they have faltered due to Netanyahu’s insistence on continuing to occupy the Netzarim Corridor (separating the north of the Strip from the south), the Rafah crossing and the Philadelphi Corridor on the border with Egypt, while Hamas insists on a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army.
Hamas has repeatedly declared its readiness to implement the agreement based on a proposal announced by US President Joe Biden at the end of last May, and accuses Netanyahu of backtracking on it and trying to impose new conditions and proposals to prolong the war and remain in office.
Since October 7, Israel, with American support, has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, leaving more than 136,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amidst massive destruction and deadly famine.