Prime minister Ahmed Qorei said Sunday that the Palestinians remained committed to forging a two-state settlement with Israel as the Israeli government warned it would respond to a Palestinian declaration of independence by annexing parts of the occupied West Bank.
"If the Israeli side wants to build peace, they will find the Palestinian side ready to build peace as well, on the basis of two countries - a country for the Israelis and a country for the Palestinians," Qorei said after warning last week that the Palestinians could call for a single bi-national state.
Israeli officials were furious at Qorei's suggestion that Israel's policies in the occupied territories could force the Palestinians to revert to the option of a bi-national state and wield the demographic threat, denouncing it as "a threat to put an end to the state of Israel as a Jewish state."
Qorei's comments to AFP on Thursday were also dismissed by official sources, who made clear that he was not speaking with the authority of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
In a statement issued Saturday after a meeting chaired by Arafat, the Palestinian leadership said that it was mulling the possibility of unilaterally proclaiming an independent state on land occupied by Israel since 1967, making no mention of the bi-national idea.
Israeli Health Minister Danny Naveh told reporters that any independence declaration would trigger a formal annexation of parts of the West Bank. "Our message is clear: if the Palestinians unilaterally proclaim an independent state, Israel will annex parts (of the West Bank) that it judges essential to its security," said Naveh, who is close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Palestinians have argued that Israel's continued settlement activity and building of a separation barrier, which in parts juts deep into the West Bank, is undermining the viability of a two-state settlement which is the goal of the internationally-brokered roadmap peace plan.
Qorei said during a tour of the barrier in the West Bank town of Qalqiliya Sunday that its construction "will not bring peace or security for the Israelis."
Israel says it has no option but to build the barrier in the absence of a crackdown by the Palestinian authorities on armed organisations.
Sharon has said that unless progress can be made in the roadmap within the next few months he will implement his own "disengagement plan" which is likely to see Israel evacuate a small number of settlements but in turn strengthen its control over others.
While the plan has angered Palestinians, settlers have also vowed to oppose what some have termed the forcible "transfer of Jews" by their one-time champion Sharon.
More than 100,000 people were expected to gather in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening to protest the evacuation plans in one of the biggest ever shows of strength by the settlers' movement.
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