'Israel to cut ties with PNA if Palestinians go to UN'
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Xinhua, August 8, 2011
Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday announced that he planned to demand senior ministers to cut all diplomatic and economic ties with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and predicted "bloodshed" after an expected United Nations vote for Palestinian statehood in September.
Lieberman said at a press conference on Sunday he would demand the government to cut off "all ties with the PNA," the Ha'aretz newspaper reported, and said that "no treasury officials nor the water authority, and no Foreign Ministry officials" (are to maintain ties with the PNA).
He also noted a potentially contradictory and explosive situation that on one hand the PNA attempts bring Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers up on purported war charges before the International Court of Justice at the Hague, and at the same time continues military and security cooperation.
"It is felt that there is an interest on the other side to make this a bigger issue," an official source from the Foreign Ministry told Xinhua, "and in many cases in the past when they have done risky moves like this it has proven to be a win-win situation for them."
Lieberman also said that despite the PNA's pledge to keep September protests in the West Bank non-violent, the protestors will not stay that way since they are planning to reach army checkpoints.
"We want to prepare, because during 'Nakba' and 'Naksa' day no one expected the violence that there was, that they breached into our borders," the Foreign Ministry source said, adding that no one in the international community expected these events to turn out that way.
During the Palestinians' Nakba (disaster in Arabic) and Naksa ( setback) day events on May 15 and June 5, respectively, dozens of protesters were killed when they tried to infiltrate into Israel from Syria and Lebanon.
Lieberman envisioned a similar scenario in September with thousands of Palestinians trying to enter Israel via West Bank checkpoints.
