Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh stressed today (Saturday) the importance of working towards reviving the Arab peace initiative to end the Israeli occupation and establish a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

This came during his meeting in the city of Ramallah with a delegation from the World Federation of Socialist Youth, according to a statement issued by his office, a copy of which was received by Xinhua News Agency, where he briefed them on the developments of the Israeli situation and measures against the Palestinian people.

The World Federation of Socialist Youth was established in 1917 and is the largest youth organization on the global level. It includes more than 200 youth organizations from different countries of the world and represents more than 1.5 million young people.

Shtayyeh called on the union to carry out a worldwide movement to put pressure on Israel to abide by the agreements signed with it, and to hold elections in all Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, for candidacy and elections.

He said, "Israel is waging several wars against us over geography, demography, money and the narrative, and by its occupation it aims to control all aspects of life in Palestine, especially killing, daily arrest and land seizure in favor of settlement expansion and control and theft of most of our water resources."

Shtayyeh praised the advocacy campaigns for "our Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of our people, the importance of the visits of international delegations to Palestine, and viewing the conditions on the ground to learn about the reality of the occupation and the suffering it causes to our people."

The Arab Peace Initiative was launched in 2002, after it was formulated by Saudi Arabia and adopted by the League of Arab States. It stipulates the establishment of normal relations with Israel after its withdrawal from the occupied Arab and Palestinian territories since 1967.

The Palestinians are calling for the achievement of an independent state alongside Israel on all the Palestinian lands that Israel occupied in 1967, including the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip, and that East Jerusalem be its capital.

In addition, the Palestine Liberation Organization warned of an Israeli plan to build a network of bypass roads in West Bank settlements as part of plans to "annex and perpetuate the apartheid regime."

A report issued by the organization's National Office for Defending Land and Resisting Settlement, a copy of which Xinhua received, said that the plan comes within the framework of the annexation plan for large parts of the West Bank when regional and international conditions permit.

Yesterday (Friday), the Hebrew Public Radio quoted the head of the Religious Zionist Party, the Minister of Finance and the one in charge of settlement in the Ministry of Defense, Bezalel Smotrich, as saying that the government intends to pay the largest possible number of random outposts that will be legalized in the West Bank.

Smotrich added, "We are working to spread electricity and street infrastructure, and together we will continue to settle youth settlements," noting that Israel "intends to develop settlements and bring another half a million residents to Judea and Samaria (the West Bank)."

The report indicated that the Israeli government allocated about four billion Israeli shekels (one US dollar equals about 3.6 shekels) for infrastructure projects and road development for settlements in the West Bank.

Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967 and established settlements on it, which are considered a violation of international law. Settlement is one of the most prominent files of the dispute between the Palestinians and Israel in light of the stalled peace negotiations between them since 2014.