BICOM

The executive committee the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has announced it will begin “disengaging” from Israel, including taking action against Israel at the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The PLO asked the Palestinian Authority (PA) to “begin devising plans to disengage from the Israeli occupation authorities at the political, security, economic and administrative levels.” According to Palestinian news agency Wafa, the executive committee of the PLO also decided to form a higher committee to implement decisions such as the suspension of the PLO’s recognition of Israel.

On 15 January the PLO Central Council voted 74-2 for the PLO Executive Committee, an 18-member leadership body made up of senior members of several Palestinian factions, to suspend recognition of Israel until Israel recognises a Palestinian state in the pre-1967 borders, cancels its decision to annex East Jerusalem and ceases settlement construction in the West Bank.

The Central Council did not set out a timetable for the Executive Committee to suspend the PLO’s recognition of Israel, but said that the interim stage decided upon in the 1993 Oslo Accords no longer existed, nor any of the commitments in them. Several Western countries have been urging Palestinian officials not to suspend recognition of Israel.

In a press release, the PLO said it had decided to ask the ICC to “start a judicial inquiry into Israeli settlements, racial discrimination and the ongoing ethnic cleansing…” in order to “hold Israeli politicians and military and security officials accountable and bring them before international justice”.

The PLO press release also stated that Palestinian Authority President and PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas would be speaking at the UN Security Council on 20 February to “reiterate his commitment for a peaceful settlement with Israel”.  Media reports have suggested that Abbas may formally ask the UN Security Council to recognise a Palestinian state.