Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday welcomed the renewed talk about the two-state solution by world leaders, including Prime Minister Yair Lapid, and called on Israel to return to the negotiating table with the Palestinians.
But he accused Israel of destroying the two-state solution, saying that it has decided not to be a partner for peace with the Palestinians.
Abbas announced that the Palestinians have decided to renew their bid to gain full membership in the United Nations and warned against attempts to obstruct the move.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, he again used the podium to launch a scathing attack on Israel, accusing it, among other things, of committing “massacres” against the Palestinians and “assaults” on Islamic and Christian holy sites.
The Palestinians, Abbas said, will ask the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch an investigation into the “crimes and massacres committed by Israel.”
The PA president described the renewed talk about the two-state solution as a “positive matter.”
“Yesterday I listened to US President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and other world leaders who voiced support for the two-state solution,” Abbas said, referring to Lapid’s speech on Thursday in which he supported it, as well as a statement issued later by Biden backing the Israeli premier’s stance. “We yearn for peace, so let us make this peace in order to live in security, stability and prosperity.”
Abbas stressed, however, that the real test for the seriousness and credibility of this stance lies in the immediate return of the Israeli government to the negotiating table to implement the two-state solution on the basis of the resolutions of international legitimacy and the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.
Abbas also called on Israel to halt unilateral measures that undermine such a solution.
“Our confidence in achieving peace based on justice and international law is waning because of the policies of the Israeli occupation,” he warned. “It has become clear that Israel has decided not to be our partner in the peace process. It has destroyed the Oslo Accords that were signed with the PLO and now it is determined to destroy the two-state solution. This proves that Israel does not believe in peace.”
“It has become clear that Israel has decided not to be our partner in the peace process. It has destroyed the Oslo Accords that were signed with the PLO and now it is determined to destroy the two-state solution. This proves that Israel does not believe in peace.”
Mahmoud Abbas
Abbas accused Israel of confiscating Palestinian lands and “looting our resources, exactly as it did in 1948.”
Abbas threatens to walk away from all signed agreements with Israel
He also accused the Israeli government of allowing the formation of “Jewish terrorist organizations” which, he said, are targeting the Palestinians and calling for their expulsion from their homes. “We call on the international community to place these terrorist organizations on the lists of international terrorism,” he said.
The PA president repeated his threat to walk away from all signed agreements with Israel, noting that major Palestinian institutions had already voted in favor of severing all ties with the Jewish state.
“We can’t accept to be the only party adhering to the agreements we signed with Israel in 1993,” he emphasized. “These agreements are no longer valid because Israel has repeatedly violated them. Israel has left us no choice but to revise our relations with it.”
Abbas demanded the implementation of UN resolutions 181 and 194. The first, issued in 1947, called for the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, while the second, adopted a year later, declares that Arab refugees wishing to return to their homes inside Israel should be permitted to do so.
He also called on Israel, the US and Britain to apologize to the Palestinians and offer them compensation because of their responsibility for the Balfour Declaration. Abbas ended his speech by praising Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, calling them “heroes and leaders.”