RAMALLAH/GAZA, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinians have condemned on Sunday some Arab countries' warming ties with Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met with leaders and foreign ministers of several Arab countries, including Oman, on the sidelines of a U.S.-sponsored conference on Middle East affairs held last week in Warsaw, the capital of Poland.

Earlier on Sunday, Israel Radio quoted Netanyahu as saying that "making peace with the Palestinians would largely contribute to improvement of Israel's ties with the Arab world."

But as peace with the Palestinians hasn't been achieved yet, Israel cannot normalize ties with the Arab world, said Netanyahu.

Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Voice of Palestine Radio in response to Netanyahu's remarks that the Arab countries' signal of normalization with Israel is "a stab in the back of the Palestinian people."

"(Their) normalization of ties with Israel will not affect the Palestinians who are determined to carry on with their struggle until they gain their legitimate rights ... mainly the establishment of a Palestinian state on 1967 territories with East Jerusalem as its capital," said Erekat.

The veteran Palestinian negotiator stressed that those who seek for peace in the Middle East must count on international resolutions, the international law and the Arab Peace Initiative.

In 2002, the Arab League launched the peace initiative with Israel, which was based on Saudi Arabia's proposal on resolving the Palestinian cause and the conflict with Israel.

According to the initiative, Arab and Islamic normalization with Israel should happen after Israel ends its occupation of the Palestinian territories which has been going on since 1967 and after the establishment of the independent Palestinian state.

Israel rejected the Arab peace initiative and since 2002, Israel has worked on establishing direct ties with Arab countries without linking the normalization of ties with resolving the Palestinian question.

Meanwhile, several Palestinian factions and political groups in the West Bank said in a joint statement that they reject all types and kinds of Arab normalization with Israel, whether it is academic, cultural or economic.

Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, condemned the Arab participation in Warsaw Conference together with Israel.

Hamas urged all to consider Arab normalization with Israel as a "big crime," while Israel is committing "the most awful kinds of crimes" against the Palestinians and violate their human rights and their holy places.

A Palestinian campaign has also been organized in several Arab countries and on the Palestinian territories to reject all kinds of normalization with Israel.

The Highest Commission of the Great March of Return has organized the campaign, mainly on the social media. Hundreds of young men, activists and leaders of various Palestinian factions joined the campaign, which is called "No for normalization. Normalization is a betrayal."

Mohamed Nashwan, a Palestinian social media activist from Gaza, said on his Twitter account that "those who were unable to support the Palestinians' rights on their land must stop supporting the occupation (Israel) through normalization with it."

Nisrin al-Sadi, another female social media activist from the West Bank, also tweeted "every day, the occupation (Israel) commits all kinds of crimes against the Palestinian people and in return Arab leaders are hurrying up to normalize ties with it."

Abdul Nasser al-Najjar, a Ramallah-based political analyst, told Xinhua that Israel and the United States will never succeed in imposing their solutions on the Palestinians, who will confront and challenge all these plans. Enditem

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