Palestinians to mourn Washington signing as 'black day' for Arabs
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The signing of normalisation accords between Israel and two Gulf states in Washington will amount to another "black day" for the Arab world, the Palestinian premier said Monday.
Both the mainstream Palestinian Authority (PA) based in the West Bank and Islamist movement Hamas which rules Gaza have condemned the US-brokered accords as a "stab in the back" of their people.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin and the top diplomats of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are to sign the deals on Tuesday, normalising ties without any progress on an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.
"Tomorrow, we will witness a black day in the history of the Arab world, of defeat for Arab League institutions, which are not united but divided," Mohammed Shtayyeh said at the weekly meeting of his PA cabinet.
"This will be another date to add to the calendar of Palestinian misery," he said, adding the PA would have to "correct" its relationship with the Arab League for its refusal to condemn the two normalisation accords struck since last month.
The Palestinians have called for protests Tuesday to coincide with the signing ceremony in the US capital and urged other Arab states "not to take part in celebrations".
On the Israeli side, a former head of its Mossad intelligence service, Efraim Halevy, said in an online forum with local journalists that the signings were "not a peace deal, it's not peace for peace, but rather interests for interests".
Bahrain and the UAE have not fought wars against the Jewish state, unlike Egypt and Jordan which signed peace treaties with Israel in 1979 and 1994, respectively.