Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo declared on Thursday that U.S. proposals for a final status arrangement that would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were unacceptable.

Abed Rabbo said he cannot accept the proposals mainly because it remains unclear when Israel would pull out of the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Kerry’s proposals offer the Palestinians “general and vague” formulas about the fate of Jerusalem, Abed Rabbo said in a broadcast on the Voice of Palestine radio station. The proposals also call for “slicing” parts of the Jordan Valley and making them part of Israel, and scrapping the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees, the PLO official said.

The plan being proposed by Secretary of State John Kerry would reportedly have Israel cede parts of east Jerusalem to Palestinians for a capital and would further fall short of meeting Israeli demands for a long-term physical presence in the Jordan Valley along the border with Jordan. Palestinian negotiators also publicly rejected Kerry’s bridging proposals almost exactly a month ago, that time emphasizing dissatisfaction with security arrangements. The most recent statements appear to convey Palestinian rejection of both the security arrangements and of Kerry’s proposal for the final disposition of Jerusalem. Rabbo also gestured toward Palestinian dissatisfaction with being asked to give up on the so-called “right of return,” a call to allow millions of Palestinians to flow across Israel’s borders from refugee camps scattered across neighboring countries. The demand, which would see the Jewish state physically overwhelmed, has long been treated as a diplomatic non-starter by successive Israeli governments.

[Photo: Brookings Institution / YouTube]