Palestinian president refuses to take Donald Trump's call as peace plan looms
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, refused to take a call from Donald Trump as the US president prepares to roll out his long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, a Palestinian minister said Monday.
Mr Trump is hosting both Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and Benny Gantz, Israel’s opposition leader at the White House today ahead of the plan’s unveiling but no Palestinians were invited.
It emerged that Mr Trump had attempted to make contact with Mr Abbas but that the Palestinian president would not take the call in line with his policy of refusing diplomatic contact with the US in response to the White House’s pro-Israel approach.
Ahmad Majdalani, a Palestinian minister, said Mr Abbas “refused a phone call from Trump” within the last week. "There will be no discussion with the Americans until they recognise the two-state solution," one Palestinian official said.
The remnants of the Islamic State (Isil) tried to capitalise on the moment with calls to attack Jews to thwart Mr Trump’s plan.
"We are urging you to join the Caliphate soldiers who are seeking to remove borders and dams that prevent them from fighting Jews," said Abu Hamzah al-Quraishi, a new Isil spokesman, in a recording.
He especially called on Isil fighters in its Sinai branch in Egypt as well those in Syria to mount cross-border raids to attack Israeli targets. "Be the spearhead in fighting Jews and making their plots fail like their 'Deal of the Century'," he said.
The US has not yet made public any details of the plan but it is expected to tilt heavily in favour of Israel by recognising Israeli sovereignty over settlements in the occupied West Bank and denying Palestinian demands that Jerusalem should be divided into a shared capital for both Israel and an independent Palestinian state.
Leaks to the Israeli media suggest that if the Palestinians refuse to come to the negotiating table, Mr Trump may give Israel the green light to annex parts of the West Bank, despite widespread international opposition.
Mr Trump’s decision to unveil the plan now, six weeks before Israel’s March 2 election, is widely seen as an effort to throw a political lifeline to Mr Netanyahu, who is trailing in the polls and facing criminal corruption charges.
"This plan is to protect Trump against being impeached and to protect Netanyahu from going to jail, and it is not a peace plan," said Mohammed Shtayyeh, the Palestinian prime minister.
"We reject it, and we demand the international community not be a partner to it because it contradicts the basics of international law and inalienable Palestinian rights.”
Mr Netanyahu has presented the Trump peace plan as an historic opportunity for Israel to take control of parts of the West Bank and to finally settle the vexed question of its borders.
“I think that such an opportunity occurs once in history and we cannot miss it,” he said. “I am leaving for Washington with a sense of great mission, great responsibility and great opportunity, and I am full of hope that we will be able to make history.”
