The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Thursday slammed remarks made by US President Donald Trump's top adviser Jared Kushner, in which he said that his Middle East peace plan will seek to better integrate “Palestinian refugees” inside Arab countries.
The PLO Executive Committee said, in a statement quoted by the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) official news agency Wafa, that it has become clear that the US envoys are “destroying any opportunity to bring about a just peace in the region”.
It described the US ambassador to Israel as “a hardcore settler who has undermined any American role in the region through his partnership with Israel's far right and settler organizations.”
The Executive Committee called on the international community to reject Israel's attempts to impose the "law of the jungle", and to pressure it to implement the resolutions of the international community in order to achieve regional security, stability and peace by recognizing the State of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.
The remarks were made by Kushner in a conversation with reporters on Wednesday, in which he noted that the Arab countries had not absorbed Palestinian Arab refugees as Jews had been absorbed into the State of Israel.
"This situation exists because it exists. When we put out a political solution, we're going to try to put forward the best proposed solutions that we think are pragmatic, achievable, and viable in this day and age," said Kushner.
"It's very easy, on this file, to find reasons why we shouldn't do something, and maybe that's why it's been in place for so long. But I think that the people of Lebanon would love to see a resolution to this issue, one that's fair. And I also think that the refugees, the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, who are denied a lot of rights and who don't have the best conditions right now, would also like to see a situation where there's a pathway for them to have more rights and to live a better life. We'll address that when we get to the political plan."
Kushner also said in his remarks that the PA had “made a strategic mistake” by boycotting the Bahrain conference, in which the US administration presented the economic portion of its peace plan.
PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas later responded to Kushner and said that the Bahrain conference was “a big lie conceived by Kushner.”
“We will not work with the American administration until it walks back its decisions. Since the Oslo Accords, Israel has been working to destroy agreements. If Israel is not committed to agreements, we will not be committed either," he declared.