PA will not accept or allow ‘foreign presence’ on Palestinian land

The official spokesman for the Presidency of the Palestinian Authority said on Sunday that, “There is no legitimacy for any foreign presence on the Palestinian Territory, and only the Palestinian people can decide who governs them and manages their affairs.”

Nabil Abu Rudeineh added, in response to Israeli statements calling for handing over the administration of the Gaza Strip to international forces, that, “There is also no legitimacy for the settlements or for the policy of displacement that the occupation authorities are trying to implement on the ground through bloody massacres.”

The PA official said that the occupation government and its president are “delusional” if they think that they can decide the fate of the Palestinian people and consolidate the occupation by recruiting foreign forces to replace the occupier in the Gaza Strip.

“We will not accept or allow the presence of a foreigner on our land, whether in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip,” insisted Abu Rudeineh. “The colonial expansion led by Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, in the West Bank territories, including occupied Jerusalem, is illegal and is part of the all-out war waged against the Palestinian people, their land and holy sites.”

The PA, he noted, rejects the “conspiracy to displace our people, and we will not allow it at any cost.” The Palestinian people, he said, have set a model example of commitment to their land, sanctities and national constants from which they will not deviate. “The Palestinian issue is one of land and statehood, not a matter of humanitarian aid. It is a sacred cause and the central issue for the Arabs.”

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