The Communist terror organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has called for a “mass struggle” to stop the French initiative, which seeks to impose peace talks on Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Just last Sunday French Prime Minister Manuel Valls visited Israel in an attempt to garner support for the initiative, even as Israel reiterated its rejection of the move. PA Chairperson Mahmoud Abbas for his part has eagerly embraced the international effort.
The French initiative – which is to hold a meeting of foreign ministers from a range of world powers on June 3 ahead of a meeting with Israel and the PA in autumn – is based on the 2002 Saudi initiative, which called for Israel to make massive concessions in exchange for paper promises not to attack from its Arab neighbors.
But the PFLP did not see fit to back the international initiative to press Israel into concessions, rejecting any negotiations with the Jewish state.
In a post to its website on Sunday, the terror group said it “calls on the Palestinian masses inside Palestine and in exile and diaspora to organize to confront and bring down the so-called ‘French initiative’ and any similar international or Arab projects.”
According to the group, the initiatives “seek to liquidate Palestinian rights under the guise of ‘peace negotiations,’ particularly the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and lands.”
PFLP urged that June 3 and June 4 – the days of the international conference – become “days of mass struggle, protest and activity to reject the French initiative and work to stop all of these suspicious activities that are in full swing in order to revive the marketing of the so-called ‘peace process.'”
The group addressed other Palestinian factions and called on them to likewise reject the initiative, accusing the “monopolistic Palestinian Authority leadership” of pushing the initiative “which seriously undermines the Palestinian national consensus.”
It pointed out that the French initiative was never presented to the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) “responsible bodies or discussed with the Palestinian political forces.”
Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri also rejected the French initiative in a statement on Sunday, calling it an individual move taken by Abbas. He termed it “an attempt to keep the Palestinian people busy and distract them from their rights – especially the right of return.”