News Analysis: Political challenges top major Palestinian meetings in Ramallah

RAMALLAH, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Political challenges exist ahead of the meetings of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), which is scheduled on Monday for the first time since 2009, analysts said.

The analysts said that huge political challenges include dealing with the ongoing conflict with Israel and tense ties with the United States, which have deteriorated since U.S. President Donald Trump declared in last December Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and decided to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May.

The PNC, the parliament in exile of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), is to start meetings on Monday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the first time in nine years.

The council will also discuss the stalled process of reconciliation with the Islamic Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip since 2007.

The focus of the meetings will be discussing "Jerusalem and protecting the Palestinian Legitimacy." The PLO executive committee and its central council had held several meetings to prepare for the meetings.

Analysts expected that the PNC, the highest Palestinian decision-making establishment, would clearly declare its rejection to Trump's declaration on Jerusalem.

However, they ruled out making decisions that would be a turning point in the traditional Palestinian stances.

Azzam el-Ahmad, member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah Party's central committee, told Xinhua that the agenda of the meetings is to include a general and comprehensive preview of the PLO procession and its decision since it was found in 1964.

"Previewing the PLO decisions will be based on the failure of the international quartet committee for peace in the Middle East and Israel's ignorance of Oslo peace accords signed in 1993 with the Palestinians, mainly the part related to establishing a Palestinian state in accordance to the two-state principle," said el-Ahmad.

The PNC has about 750 members representing political factions and powers, as well as unions and representatives of Palestinian communities inside the Palestinian territories and in the Diaspora.

Ghassan al-Khatib, the Palestinian political science professor at Beir Zeit University, said "the Palestinian leadership finds itself faced with unprecedented challenges in relations with Washington and Israel, which requires strengthening the official Palestinian position and achieving support and legitimacy through the convening of the National Assembly."

Al-Khatib expected that the PNC would come up with decisions so that Trump's declaration will be rejected and denounced and President Abbas peace initiative will be adopted, which is presented to the United Nations Security Council aiming at finding an international sponsorship of the peace process.

Meanwhile, he ruled out decisions that may lead to a turning point in the traditional Palestinian political stance, mainly related to ties with Israel.

The PLO Central Council decided in January to authorize its executive committee to suspend the recognition of Israel until it recognized the state of Palestine on the 1967 borders.

Sadeq Shafe'i, a political analyst from the West Bank, said that the PNC meetings "will be preparing for holding another PNC session and join all those who are represented from inside the Palestinian territories and from the diaspora."

The Palestinians have undergone internal division since mid 2007, when the Islamic Hamas movement took over control of the Gaza Strip by force after fighting with forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority. Enditem