Saeb Erekat, Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) Executive Committee, said that US President Donald Trump's "deal of the century" aims to dictate a blockade, not reach an agreement through negotiations.
According to Erekat, Trump should have offered a contract for peace, instead of attempting to solve the conflict.
Speaking Friday in a meeting in Ramallah, Erekat told a delegation of American politicians, academics, economists, and social activists that the word "deal" means the agreement of one side to sell its property to the other side due to bankruptcy. A peace contract, on the other hand, means both sides agreed on the terms, which benefit everyone.
Erekat also emphasized that political solutions which "bypass" international law and United Nations resolutions are "illusions." According to him, the main issue with the "occupation authority" is the loss of diplomatic opportunities, destruction of the two-state idea, and the attempt to remove Jerusalem, the "refugees," the borders, and the settlements from the negotiating table.
Erekat also said that all of the Trump administration's decisions regarding Jerusalem, "refugees," settlements, borders, and the annexation of "occupied Palestinian land" and the "occupied" Arab Golan Heights, are meaningless and in complete violation of international law.
US President Donald Trump in March signed an order recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights. In December 2017, Trump signed an order recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and in May 2018 moved the US Embassy there.
Trump is scheduled to unveil his "deal of the century" in June.
A source familiar with the Trump peace plan recently told The Washington Post that it will include practical improvements in the lives of Palestinian Authority (PA) Arabs but is likely to stop short of ensuring a separate, fully sovereign Palestinian state. Other reports say the plan will divide Jerusalem.
However, the PA has been boycotting the US ever since Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December of 2017 and rejected the US peace plan outright before anything was known about it.