Has Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to negotiations based on the 1949 armistice line, despite previous claims to the contrary?
According to Palestinian Authority-based media outlets, the official invites to Israel-PA talks, which will be sent by the United States, are to include a statement that the talks will be based on the “1967 lines” with possible territorial swaps.
The report was carried by both Al-Ayyam and Al-Hayat. The latter paper quoted a senior PA source as having confirmed the wording of the invite.
Israeli leaders have publicly agreed to the PA demand that Israel release terrorist prisoners in advance of talks. However, Netanyahu and his ministers have asserted that Israel did not give in to the PA’s other demands.
PA officials who spoke to Al-Ayyam claimed that Israel had caved on both the ‘1967 lines’ and on a third PA demand, as well. While Netanyahu has publicly spoken of his plans to issue tenders for construction in Judea and Samaria during Israel-PA talks, in fact, the United States plans to prevent “Israeli provocation” in the form of construction in Judea and Samaria for the duration of the negotiations, they said.
The PA openly claims all land east of the 1949 armistice line as Arab land, including the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Roughly 700,000 Israeli Jews live east of the 1949 line; PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly stated that he “will never allow a single Israeli to live among us on Palestinian land.”
Some PA leaders have also made public statements claiming all of Israel as “Palestine.” Official PA media outlets have published cartoons showing all of Israel as “Palestine.”