RAMALLAH, October 14 (JMCC) - Palestinians have not submitted a request to
Israel and the United States for the borders of Israel in response to an exchange offer by the Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, reports Xinua.
The Israeli leader said that Israel was willing to reinstate a settlement moratorium for two months if Palestinians recognized Israel as a Jewish state.
Earlier Israeli media reports quoted Yasser Abed Rabbo, the official in Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), as saying that he was officially authorized to apply to the U.S. and Israel and request a map for Israel.
The report of Israeli daily Ha'aretz also quoted Abed Rabbo as saying that he made the request after the U.S. asked the Palestinian side to present another proposal opposite to Netanyahu 's offer.
Abed Rabbo's statements are not official at all and it was made for mocking, Shaath said. The Palestinian side has been always asking Israel to recognize the borders of the Palestinian state and it is a legal demand.
He added that Abed Rabbo's statements were just to ridicule Netanyahu's statements who linked the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state with freezing settlement.
The Palestinian side is not ready for paying the price of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, said Shaath. Abed Rabbo's statements don't represent the views of the PLO or Fatah movement or President Abbas.
The request to recognize Israel as a Jewish state has raised fears among Israel's 20 percent Arab minority of further marginalization.
Read the full story at Xinua...