UN envoy: Israel must take Abbas threats to dismantle PA seriously
Israel must take heed of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ threats to resign and dismantle the PA, a UN official who is close to the PA president told Haaretz, adding that the deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians could cause violence to erupt in the West Bank, and the rest of the world will not bail out Israel if that happens.
“The Palestinians feel growing alienation towards the Oslo process,” said Robert Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process. “I hear many voices in Ramallah that call for the dismantling of the PA and to throw the keys back to Israel.”
“I don’t want to sound apocalyptic - but if things go wrong don’t expect the international community to bail you out,” Serry said in an interview with Haaretz on Friday in his office in the UN headquarters in Jerusalem. “We will not pay the bill.”
Of the foreign diplomats serving in Israel and the PA, Serry, who is from the Netherlands, is considered one of the closest to Abbas. The Mideast envoy, who also serves as the UN secretary-general’s personal representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, meets with Abbas almost every week, and like other diplomats, Serry has heard from Abbas that he intends to resign within a few months if no progress is made in negotiations.
Serry warned that violence could erupt in the West Bank.
“It is a sad and paradoxical situation,” said Serry. “On the one hand the Palestinians made progress in their state-building, but on the other hand, because there are no negotiations, and not only because of Israel’s fault, the Palestinians are starting to wonder if this [two-state solution] should be the direction. This trend should worry the Israeli government and the Israeli public. If things will stay like this - the good security situation [in the West Bank] will not continue.”