PALESTINIANS have slammed a decision by Israel’s parliament today to reject the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Israeli media said the resolution was passed with 68 votes in favour and just nine against.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party left the session to avoid supporting the statement, despite previously saying he favoured a two-state solution, the Times of Israel newspaper reported.
The vote came on the same day that Israel’s far-right national security minister made a provocative visit to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site which threatened to disrupt Gaza ceasefire talks.
The Knesset resolution said a Palestinian state would pose “an existential danger to the state of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and destabilise the region.”
The secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Barghouti, said the “resolution represents a rejection of peace with Palestinians and an official declaration of the death of the Oslo agreement.”
The Oslo Accords were signed between Palestinian and Israeli leaders in 1993. The agreement called for a viable and sovereign Palestinian state living side by side with an Israeli state.
But the agreement has been largely ignored by Israeli governments, which have continued to allow the building of illegal settlements on Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh also condemned the resolution.
He said the decision of the Knesset “confirms the racism of the occupying state and its disregard for international law and international legitimacy — and its insistence on the approach and policy of perpetuating the occupation forever.”
The decision is not new for the Knesset which has previously voted to reject Palestinian statehood.
But a growing number of countries, including Ireland, Norway, Slovenia and Spain, have recognised Palestine as a state.
Meanwhile Israel’s far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he had gone up to the contested Jerusalem hilltop compound of al-Aqsa Mosque to pray for the return of hostages from the October 7 attacks “but without a reckless deal, without surrendering.”
The gesture threatens to disrupt sensitive talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire in the nine-month Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
While standing in front of the golden dome of al-Aqsa Mosque, Mr Ben-Gvir, a settler leader, said he “is praying and working hard” to ensure that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not give in to international pressure and will continue with the military campaign in Gaza.
Mr Ben-Gvir oversees the country’s police force and is a key coalition partner with the power to remove Mr Netanyahu’s parliamentary majority.
