Palestinians disappointed at Israel's new membership in OECD

Palestinians are disappointed Monday at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OEDC)'s acceptance of Israel as its new member.

Ghassan al-Khatib, spokesman of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad government in the West Bank, told Xinhua that the Palestinian government "expresses distress as OECD accepted Israel as its member."

Palestinian National Authority (PNA) officially asked on Monday the countries, members of the OECD to postpone the acceptance of Israel to the international organization. The PNA warned that Israel's membership would legitimize its military occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The PNA ministry of foreign affairs published the letter on its website, which was addressed to OECD countries. The letter said that accepting Israel in the organization "means legitimizing the Israeli policies and accepting its aggressive and racial practices against the Palestinian people."

"The danger of accepting Israel's membership in the organization stems from Israel's plans to sketch its economic plan in the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem and the settlements in the West Bank," said the PNA foreign affairs ministry statement.

The PNA statement added that "Accepting Israel's membership would encourage Israel for more serious practices against the Palestinians and would threat the efforts of the international community to find a fair political solution to the conflict in accordance to the international resolutions."

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