Last Sunday, 14 January, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas claimed Israel “killed the Oslo Accords”. The following day, leaders of the Palestinian Central Council voted to call for the suspension of PLO’s recognition of and security cooperation with the Jewish state, until Israel “recognises the state of Palestine”, ceases its annexation of East Jerusalem, and stops the expansion of settlements.
During an interview with Channel NewsAsia, MEI Senior Research Fellow Victor Kattan mentioned that the vote was non-binding and only the PLO’s Executive Committee could make binding decisions. Moreover, the Executive Committee has in the past refused to authorise such requests from the Central Committee. Kattan expects the move to be mostly symbolic – if implemented, however, the suspension could lead to escalating unilateral actions on both sides.