The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Monday said it supports peaceful struggle against Israel despite Israeli threats of more pressure to stop demonstrations in the West Bank.
"The PNA encourages the peaceful resistance and government officials regularly participate in that resistance which would continue as long as the occupation continued," Ghassan Al-Khatib, a PNA spokesman, told Xinhua.
He added that Israel had signaled several warnings to the PNA, urging it to stop its support to demonstrations against the construction of settlements and the building of a concrete wall across the West Bank as a barrier to distance Palestinians from the Jewish settlements. "The PNA rejects these threats and will not yield," Al-Khatib said.
Last month, Israel started to reroute the track of the barrier near the West Bank village of Bilin under a high court order following years of peaceful weekly protests. Bilin's protests were recognized as a model of nonviolent resistance and the experience began prevailing in the following days in the West Bank.
More protests have taken place since Israel announced it would add two West Bank shrines to its list of Jewish heritage sites. Al-Khatib said that decision in addition to houses demolishing in East Jerusalem "motivate the Palestinian people to escalate their protests."
Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper on Monday quoted Palestinian sources as saying that Yuval Diskin, head of Shin Bet security service, told Palestinian security chiefs that Israel may have to expand detention raids in the West Bank if the PNA doesn't withdraw its support to these protests.
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