“East Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine, and the future state must have full sovereignty over it,” Ma’an news reported Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as saying on Saturday. Speaking during a conference at Birzeit University's Institute for Palestine studies entitled "Jerusalem: History of the Future,” Fayyad said that peace depended on protection of the "Palestinian capital". "The conference's title bears a meaning that all of us believe in, which is that the future of the national project and the future of a comprehensive peace in the region are both dependent on protecting Jerusalem, its status, its history, and Palestinian rights in the city," the prime minister added.
"In 1988, and in light of the peaceful, popular intifada, representatives of the Palestinian people within the Palestinian National Council decided by an overwhelming majority to make painful historic concessions for the sake of securing Palestinian rights in accordance with international resolutions," he said. "Since then, the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization] has been committed to the peace process. Meanwhile, Israeli governments have violated every agreement related to Palestinian rights in Jerusalem.”