Senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official Saeb Erekat on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu doesn't seek peace with the Palestinian Arabs but wants them to surrender to his plans, Xinhua reports.
Erekat, the secretary-general of Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee, made the remarks in response to Netanyahu's statement during a joint press conference held on Monday with senior White House adviser Jared Kushner. During that press conference, Netanyahu said that "if we have to wait for the Palestinians to make peace, we will have to wait forever."
In response, Erekat said in a statement, "If Netanyahu and Kushner want to make peace with the Palestinians while Jerusalem and its holy sites under Israel's sovereignty, they must wait until after the end of time and life.”
Erekat added that Netanyahu, "who heads a government of settlement and apartheid, does not want peace, but wants the Palestinian surrender under the Israeli apartheid regime."
"I believe that Netanyahu will have to wait forever," Erekat said, adding that the Palestinian Arabs had always rejected the principle of "peace for peace".
Erekat also said that "the logic behind the US-Israeli attitudes is that the Palestinians must accept being defeated, or in other words, to strip them their legitimate rights in favor of the Israeli illegal settlement."
US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the PA failed in 2014 when the PA unilaterally applied to join international organizations in breach of the conditions of the talks.
PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas has said he is willing to return to peace negotiations with Israel as soon as it retracts its plan to apply sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.
The sovereignty plan was suspended as part of the historic peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Abbas has denounced the Israel-UAE deal and described it as "a stab in the Palestinians' back".