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Interview with Palestinian Minister of Settlements Walid Assaf

Ramallah (West Bank), Jul 10 (EFE) .- (Camera: Laura Fernández Palomo) The Palestinian Minister of Settlements, Walid Assaf, is not satisfied with Israel minimizing the map of annexations of the West Bank, but demands that it stop them completely to return to the negotiation table, although not on the basis of the US plan, which proposes an unfeasible Palestine. FOOTAGE OF THE JORDAN VALLEY, AN ISRAELI CHECKPOINT AND WALL FROM OCCUPIED WEST BANK, A COLONY WITH THE ISRAELI FLAG, A CHECKPOINT BETWEEN EAST JERUSALEM AND WEST BANK AND OF MILITARY IN OCCUPIED WEST BANK. SOUNDBITES AND TRANSLATIONS OF:Walid Assaf, Palestinian Minister of Settlements 1.- (00.00) This is the shape of the Palestinian State after it is separated and isolated from each other. This means that it will be a set of portions or islands separated from each other by many military checkpoints, throughout Palestinian lands, that can completely control the lives of Palestinians. On the ground, Israel has taken many steps in the last fifty years (of occupation) to get here. (00.43)2.- (00.44) What did Israel do to get to this day? During these fifty years, it has first declared closed military areas in the centre of the Jordan Valley. These black zones that Palestinians (today) cannot access or use. Then they also created nature reserves in the Jordan Valley. (1.24)3.- (1.25) What the US Administration and the Netanyahu Government plan is to end the two-state solution. (1.31) - (1.32) We are still ready to negotiate, but on the basis of international law, international legal resolutions and the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, and not on the basis of the "agreement of the century". We will not accept any dialogue or negotiation based on it. The deal of the century is rejected. (1.44)4.- (1.45) We did not get here to be (only) an autonomy or an auxiliary army of Israel to preserve its security. We came here to be a State, to live in peace with Israel. - (2.00) Without it, if the Palestinians do not obtain a state with security and protection, there will be no peace in the region and Israel will not achieve peace if both parties don't get it. Peace is shaped with two parts, not one. (2.21)