The Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Saeb Erekat, said on Tuesday evening that Israel has no right to deny 400,000 Palestinians living in Jerusalem from participating in the general elections.
During his meeting with representatives of European countries to the National Authority in the city of Beit Jala, Erekat called on the European Union countries and the international community to put pressure on Israel to prevent obstructing the holding of elections in Jerusalem.
He stressed that this "is necessary and an application of Annex II of the Oslo agreement for the interim period in 1995 regarding the holding of elections in East Jerusalem, as happened in 1996 and 2006."
And the Minister of Civil Affairs, Hussein Al-Sheikh, said yesterday, Tuesday, that the Palestinian Authority formally requested Israel to allow the residents of the eastern part of Jerusalem to participate in the legislative and presidential elections, nomination and election.
In this regard, Erekat said that Israel has not yet responded to the Palestinian request, stressing that it is not possible to hold Palestinian elections without including Jerusalem and that this matter is subject to national consensus.
Erekat condemned a series of measures recently imposed by Israel in East Jerusalem, such as closing official and popular institutions and preventing the governor of Jerusalem, Adnan Ghaith, from practicing any public activities as well as arresting and detaining him several times.
Erekat accused the occupation prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of "not believing in the two-state solution," stressing in return that the Palestinian leadership adheres to international law and international legitimacy and the principle of peaceful ways to resolve the conflict.
"If Netanyahu does not want us to have an independent state and no state with equal rights, then he wants one state with two systems, and this is the racism that Israel is trying to justify for security reasons," he said.
He stressed that "the annexation and settlement of Palestinian lands is a disgrace to the forehead of the international community, which must protect international law and not be silent in front of those who push towards the law of the jungle."
Erekat urged European countries to collectively recognize the independent state of Palestine on the borders occupied in 1967.
He said: "The countries that recognize the two-state solution cannot recognize one country without another."
