Roundup: Palestinians threaten to take counter steps if U.S. moves embassy to Jerusalem

The Palestinians threatened on Monday to take counter steps if the United States moves its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

"If the embassy is moved to Jerusalem, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) won't be able to recognize Jerusalem, including the eastern part of the city as the capital of the state of Israel," said Saeb Erekat, secretary general of PLO's executive committee.

"The signed deals will be reconsidered, including the economical, political and security ties with Israel," he added.

The veteran Palestinian politician told reporters that the Palestinians would also seek to freeze Israel's membership in the United Nations and a judiciary decision from the International Criminal Court on the crimes Israel had committed in the Palestinian territories.

The Palestinians would call for the Arab League and the non-aligned countries to hold emergency meetings for proper measures "against this hostile measure," according to Erekat.

"A Palestinian state will be meaningless if east Jerusalem is not its capital," he stressed.

Ahmad Majdalani, another senior PLO official, said that moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem "is a breach to the international laws and a violation to all commitments made before the international community."

"The breach will be from a country that is a member in the UN Security Council," he added.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian leadership, including the PLO and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is working hard with the international community to urge the U.S. not to move the embassy to Jerusalem "because such an act would ignite the entire region."

Earlier Monday, Reyad al-Malki, the PNA minister of foreign affairs, told Voice of Palestine Radio that a series of meetings will be held in Europe with various countries, adding that "the whole discussion will focus on the U.S. intentions to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem."

On Saturday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who was in Jordan, stated that he agreed with King Abdulla of Jordan to take practical steps in response to the U.S. intentions.

In Gaza and the West Bank, several Palestinian factions and political powers warned that moving the embassy of the United States to Jerusalem "would open the gates of hell in the region."

The leaders of these factions stressed that they can't see an independent Palestinian state without Jerusalem as its capital.

"We warn of the dangers of moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem," said Abdulatif al-Qanou, spokesman of Islamic Hamas movement, in an emailed press statement, adding that "Hamas considers Jerusalem an occupied city and Hamas will never give up struggling to gain it back."

"The American administration is exceeding all the red lines by moving its embassy to occupied Jerusalem," the spokesman said. "Such an action will be a provocation to the Muslims' feelings all over the world and empower the Israeli occupation of the lands of Palestine."

On Sunday night, the White House officially announced that it had started an initial discussion of moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, Israel Radio reported.

Israeli media said following the announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump held a telephone conversation, in which Trump invited Netanyahu to visit Washington in February.

Israel insists that Jerusalem is its eternal capital, while the Palestinians say the eastern part of the city, which was occupied by Israel in 1967, is the capital of an independent Palestinian state. Israel still refuses to recognize a Palestinian state built on the territories it occupied in 1967. Endit