Israel poll results ‘thwart prospects for peace’: PLO

RAMALLAH, Palestine

The results of Tuesday’s general election in Israel will only serve to “thwart prospects for peace”, according to Hanan Ashrawi, a prominent member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)’s Executive Committee.

In a Wednesday statement, the veteran Palestinian politician asserted that the poll results had confirmed Israel’s “refusal to countenance a Palestinian state”.

In Tuesday’s poll, a right-wing coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party captured a majority of seats in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament), according to preliminary results released Wednesday.

Ashrawi said that poll results had confirmed “the persistence of [Israeli] racism and extremism”, adding that Israeli voters had “opted for the current policy of murder, [land] annexation and theft”.

Israeli citizens, Ashrawi said, had voted in favor of “persecuting the Palestinian people and violating their rights”.

Netanyahu, she continued, “will continue his extremist and militant agenda with the open support of the U.S. administration”.

Ashrawi concluded by stressing the Palestinian people's insistence on securing their land and legitimate rights and their continued rejection of “dubious schemes and deals”.

According to preliminary results cited by Israeli daily Haaretz, Netanyahu’s Likud-led coalition captured 65 seats in the 120-member Knesset.

Initial results gave Likud 35 Knesset seats; United Torah Judaism and the Shas Party eight seats each; Yisrael Beiteinu five seats; the Union of Right-Wing Parties five seats; and the Kulanu Party four seats.

Likud’s main rival, Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party, meanwhile, clinched 35 seats in the assembly.

With the exception of Labor and Meretz, Israeli political parties reject the notion of an independent Palestinian state and oppose any attempt to end Israel’s decades-long occupation of the West Bank and ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip.