WORLD / MID-EAST
Ending Israeli settlement ‘important step’ for trust building: PLO
Published: Aug 02, 2021 06:23 PM
Palestinians wearing face masks walk on a street in Gaza City, during the lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19, on Sept. 5, 2020. Palestine on Saturday recorded seven new death cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of deaths to 199. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

Palestinians wearing face masks walk on a street in Gaza City, during the lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19, on Sept. 5, 2020. Palestine on Saturday recorded seven new death cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of deaths to 199. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)



 Ending Israeli settlement in the Palestinian territories, mainly in East Jerusalem, is an important step for trust-building with Israel, a senior Palestinian official said on Sunday.

Member of the executive committee of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Ahmed Majdalani told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah that "the Israeli settlement building and the confiscation of Palestinian land must stop." He added that trust-building doesn't only mean easing economic and financial measures for the Palestinians or arranging security coordination between the two sides, but also means changing the Israeli policies.

"We presented to the US the ideas and steps for trust-building with Israel," Majdalani said, noting that the ideas were not discussed after the new Israeli government was formed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

On Sunday, the Palestinian al-Quds daily reported that in July, the Palestinian side handed US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hadi Amr a document of trust-building measures with Israel.

The newspaper unveiled that the document called for bringing the Palestinian-Israeli relations to pre-2000 and resuming the direct peace negotiations between the two sides.

The document included 30 items related to security, political and economic demands, including freezing settlements, maintaining the status quo at al-Aqsa Mosque and stopping demolishing Palestinian homes, it said.

The document also called for reducing the Israeli commission on tax revenue dues from 3 to 1 percent, stopping Israeli deductions on Palestinian funds, and reviewing the Paris Economic Agreement, it added.