Palestinians: Election results show no peace partner in Israel

Palestinians said on Wednesday that the rise of right-wing parties in the Israeli elections shows that there is no partner for peace in Israel.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said that the Palestinians had no “illusions” that the elections would produce an Israeli peace partner.

“The results confirm that we have no partner in Israel for peace,” he said. “The international community must assume its responsibilities to implement the resolutions of international legitimacy and provide protection for our people from the aggressive Israeli policies after the rise of racist parties to power.”

The rise of religious right-wing parties in the elections, Shtayyeh added, “is a natural result of the growing extremism and racism in Israeli society.”

Shtayyeh said that the Palestinian people will not stop their “legitimate struggle to end the occupation, gain their freedom, and establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, regardless of the identity of the winners of the Israeli elections. The difference between the Israeli parties is the same as the difference between Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola.”

Do the election outcomes pose a threat to Palestinians and Israeli Arabs?

Senior PLO official Tayseer Khaled called for the formation of a “united national front” consisting of Palestinians and Arab Israelis to confront “fascism” in Israel.

Khaled said that the results of the elections show that hate speech has become part of the official discourse in Israel.

He warned that the outcome of the elections posed a threat to both the Palestinians and the Arab Israelis.

The PLO’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) said in separate statements that results of the elections “reflect the right-wing and fascist trends of Israeli society.”

“The election results do not bear anything new,” the PFLP argued. “There is no difference between the right-wing parties in Israel when it comes to the Palestinian issue. The rise of these parties constitutes a severe blow to those who bet on any peaceful solution.”

The DFLP said that the results of the elections should drive the Palestinians to work toward achieving unity and abandon the path of negotiations with Israel.

The group called on the PA to implement the resolution of the PLO Central Council to halt security coordination and suspend all agreements signed with Israel.

Hassan Asfour, a former PA official and political activist, wrote that the victory of “fascism” in Israel was a “natural outcome of the assassination of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.”

The victory of “fascism," he said, “confirmed that the settlements were not only a threat to the land of Palestine, but rather a center for the production of fascist groups which posed a direct threat to the [Israeli] entity itself.”

Asfour too said that the PA leadership should respond by cutting all ties with Israel. He also said that the rise of the right-wing parties should serve as a warning message to the Arab countries that normalized their relations with Israel.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, has again threatened to sever all ties with Israel.

In a speech before the Arab summit in Algiers, Abbas did not comment on the results of the voting in Israel.

“I must tell you, frankly, that Israel, the occupying power, is systematically destroying the two-state solution, disavowing the agreements signed with it, and continuing its unilateral practices,” Abbas said. “This has left us no choice but to reconsider the entire existing relationship with Israel.”

He also threatened to pursue Palestinian efforts to prosecute Israel before international courts.

Abbas urged the Arab countries to form a ministerial committee to act in the international arena “to expose the practices of the Israeli occupation authorities and to explain our Arab narrative, which is completely absent in the West where the Zionist narrative prevails.”