Palestinian peace official Saeb Erekat says Nikki Haley needs to shut up, Israel is the problem
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat on Saturday attacked the Trump administration, telling the “impudent” Nikki Haley she should “shut up” with her criticism of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
“Nikki Haley needs to shut up and realize that the Palestinian leadership is not the problem,” Erekat told the website Al-Watan Voice on Saturday.
Erekat is a lead Palestinian peace negotiator and the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Nikki Haley
“Instead, the problem is the Israeli occupation and the policies it continues to pursue. I’m not saying that we don’t make mistakes; every society and every government makes mistakes.”
Haley had attacked during an address to the United Nations Security Council Abbas after he said she and American Ambassador to Israel David Friedman brought “shame on the administration” and that the Palestinian leadership won’t “accept the U.S. as a mediator” after it recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
“President Abbas declared the landmark Oslo Peace Accords dead. He rejected any American role in peace talks. He insulted the American President. He called for suspending recognition of Israel. He invoked an ugly and fictional past, reaching back to the 17th century to paint Israel as a colonialist project engineered by European powers,” Haley said.
“A speech that indulges in outrageous and discredited conspiracy theories is not the speech of a person with the courage and the will to seek peace,” she said. “Ultimately, peace will not be achieved without leaders with courage.”
“I ask here today, where is the Palestinian King Hussein? Where is the Palestinian Anwar Sadat,” she said, referring to the Jordanian and Egyptian leaders who made peace with Israel. “If President Abbas demonstrates he can be that type of leader, we would welcome it. His recent actions demonstrate the total opposite.”
Erekat accused Haley of pushing for a “coup” within the “Palestinian political system.”
“She called for overthrowing the democratically elected Palestinian president,” he said. “This is the president who led the peace process and promoted the principle of the two-state solution.
“Now this ambassador is accusing him of lacking courage and is calling for replacing him.”
Since Trump declared that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Palestinians have intentionally avoided meeting with American officials.
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