PA: Pompeo’s visit to a settlement is a provocation

Several Palestinian factions denounced Pompeo’s planned visit to Psagot. Hamas called it a “new American aggression against the Palestinians and Arabs.”

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s planned visit to a settlement in the West Bank during his upcoming tour of the region is a provocation against the Palestinian people and their leadership,” Palestinian Authority presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh said Sunday.

“This is a dangerous precedent that confirms this administration’s blatant disregard of international resolutions, first and foremost United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334,” he said.

Israel “is trying to benefit from the unlimited support of the current US administration, which has provided it with all possible support for the sake of settlement expansion and the takeover of more Palestinian lands,” he added.

Pompeo’s planned visit to a settlement “means that this American administration has become a fundamental partner in the occupation of the Palestinian lands,” Abu Rudaineh said. “Neither this visit nor any US support for Israeli settlements in Palestinian lands can give legitimacy to the settlements or change the fact that they are doomed to end.”

Mahmoud Aloul, deputy chairman of the ruling Fatah faction, condemned Pompeo’s planned visit to Psagot. It again shows that President Donald Trump’s administration is not only biased in favor of Israel, it is also “complicit in its occupation,” he said.

The Palestinians were not surprised to learn about the visit because it comes in the context of the administration’s efforts to “legalize” the settlements, Aloul said.

Several Palestinian factions, in separate statements, denounced Pompeo’s planned visit to Psagot. Hamas called it a “new American aggression against the Palestinians and Arabs.”

The visit reflects the US administration’s insistence on implementing the ‘Deal of the Century,’” Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif Qanou said, referring to Trump’s plan for Mideast peace.

The planned visit was a continuation of the Trump administration’s “disregard for all international laws and conventions,” Palestinian Islamic Jihad said.