BICOM

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that the PA would bring the issue of Palestinians jailed by Israel to the United Nations.

Speaking during a visit to Tunisia, Abbas accused Israel of being in violation of agreements to free Palestinian prisoners and that authorities are not meeting the demands of thousands of hunger strikers, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

“We made our decision to seek the United Nations to bring up the issue of prisoners,” Abbas told the Tunisian Constituent Assembly, according to the report. However, he acknowledged that any such resolution would be blocked. “Nonetheless, we need to raise our voice everywhere because the prisoners’ issue cannot withstand delay,” he added.

According to Palestinian human rights groups, some 2,500 Palestinian prisoners have been on hunger strike since 17 April. Israeli prisons commissioner Aharon Franco has named a panel to address the hunger strikers’ demands. Sivan Weizman, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Prisons Authority, said the Israeli panel was set up before the hunger strike was launched but confirmed
Franco had told prisoners he would review the committee’s recommendations.

In the same speech to the Tunisian parliament, Abbas said, “I choose you [Benjamin] Netanyahu as my partner for peace. With whom else can I make peace?” He qualified the unusual statement, by adding that Netanyahu must “choose between settlements and peace.”

Abbas also reiterated his demands from Israel to halt settlements construction, recognise the two-state solution and accept the principle of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.