JERUSALEM // The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened the Palestinians on Sunday with unilateral reprisals as the two sides prepared for last-ditch talks with a US envoy.
Mr Netanyahu said Israel would retaliate if the Palestinians proceed with applications to adhere to 15 international treaties.
“Palestinian threats to turn to the United Nations won’t influence us – the Palestinians have much to lose in a unilateral effort like that.”
Mr Netanyahu’s remarks came as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators prepared to meet the US envoy Martin Indyk in an attempt to save the peace process from collapse.
The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, questioned the value of the negotiations, and asked if it was “a crime” to seek the establishment of a Palestinian state on lands Israel captured in the 1967 war.
“If it’s a crime for me to ask the Israeli government to say that we want to achieve two states” based on 1967 lines, “what am I doing with you? What are you negotiating to achieve?” Mr Erekat said.
John Kerry, the US secretary of state and the driving force behind the peace push, warned on Friday that there were “limits” to the time and energy Washington could devote to the talks process, as his appeals to both sides to step back from the brink fell on deaf ears.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas rejected a plea from Mr Kerry to withdraw the treaty applications, and Mr Netanyahu ignored US appeals to refrain from tit-for-tat moves, asking for a range of retaliatory options to be drawn up.
Israel says Mr Abbas’s move was a clear breach of the commitments the Palestinians gave when the talks were relaunched in July to pursue no other avenues for recognition of their promised state.
The Palestinians say Israel had already reneged on its own undertakings by failing to release a fourth and final batch of prisoners last weekend. The treaty move was their response.
“The Palestinians have much to lose from a unilateral move. They will get a state only through direct negotiations and not through empty declarations or unilateral moves,” Mr Netanyahu said on Sunday.
“We are prepared to continue talks, but not at any price.”
He said the Palestinian application to the international institutions came “the moment before agreeing on the continuation of the talks” beyond their April 29 deadline.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, general secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organisation executive committee, blamed the latest talks crisis on Israel which “wants to extend the negotiations for ever” as it creates “more facts on the ground”.
“Israel wants never-ending negotiations, negotiations for the sake of negotiating, while it buys time to build more settlements,” he said.
Officials from Mr Netanyahu down have been cautious not to specify the exact nature of punitive measures Israel might take. One possibility could be withholding tax revenue and fees Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
The Israeli parliament is to meet on Monday to debate the peace process.
Meanwhile, media reported that Israel could prevent Wataniya Palestine Telecom from laying down cellphone infrastructure in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, and halt Palestinians from building in parts of the West Bank.
The economy minister, Naftali Bennett, an outspoken hardliner who opposes a Palestinian state, said Israel must call on the International Criminal Court to put certain Palestinian leaders on trial for war crimes.
Shurat Hadin, a non-governmental organisation that backs the families of Israelis killed in Palestinian attacks, said it would lodge a complaint with the ICC.
Human Rights Watch said Washington should back the Palestinian bid to join international treaties, a step which “could help create a better environment for peace negotiations”.
“The US should press both the Palestinians and the Israelis to better abide by human rights standards,” said HRW’s deputy Middle East director Joe Stork.
Israel’s chief negotiator Tzipi Livni suggested that Washington scale down its “intensive” involvement in the process with the Palestinians, saying what was needed were direct Palestinian-Israeli talks.
“Part of what took place in the past months was primarily negotiations between us and the US, and less with the Palestinians,” said Livni, who is also justice minister.
“We need bilateral meetings between us, including between the prime minister and Abu Mazen (Abbas),” she said on Saturday.
* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Bloomberg