Likud Central Committee
Likud Central CommitteeSpokesperson

The Palestinian National Council (PNC) on Monday condemned the Likud Central Committee after its members unanimously approved a motion calling for Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.

Salim Zanoun, the chairman of the PNC, called the decision "an open war against the Palestinian people."

Zanoun added that the decision was "the height of terror and aggression against the rights of the Palestinian people" and "a translation of the policies of colonialism, extremism and arrogance rooted in the perception of the Likud party and its leaders, headed by the chief extremist Netanyahu.”

He called the decision a "flagrant violation and an attack against our historic rights in our country and an attack against UN resolutions that view the West Bank, including Al-Quds, as occupied Palestinian land, the legal status of which cannot be changed by any party, president or government."

Zanoun said that the Palestinian people will fight this decision by stressing the right of return of the refugees to their homes and the right of the Palestinians to establish their independent and sovereign Palestinian state on all the territories that have been occupied since 1967 with its capital Al-Quds, a state that will be “free of all aspects of the settlement and its consequences.”

Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas similarly blasted the Likud Central Committee on Monday, calling the approval of the sovereignty motion a "racist decision."

Abbas said that Israel's "dangerous" policy would not have been possible had it not been for the total support of the American administration, which refuses to condemn "the Israeli colonialist settlements and the crimes of the occupation," as he put it.

He made clear that the Palestinians intend to appeal to the international courts and lodge complaints against Israel in the coming year, as well as to try to join a number of international organizations.