The African leaders told Prime Minister Netanyahu that they thanked him and Israel for its cooperation in so many fields.
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Later, Netanyahu and Israel’s United Nations ambassador, Danny Danon, hosted an event in which representatives of Israel’s tech, solar and medical industries presented their innovations to diplomats from Africa and developing countries elsewhere.
Afterwards, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife, along with Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, attended a unique event at UN headquarters with dozens of African leaders under the heading “Israeli Technology and Innovation for Africa”. Netanyahu welcomed Abbas to “speak to the Israeli people at the Knesset in Jerusalem” and offering to “gladly come to speak peace with the Palestinian parliament in Ramallah”.
As the 50th anniversary of Israel’s occupation approaches in June, the Palestinian president urged the 193-member United Nations general assembly to declare 2017 “the worldwide year to end the Israeli occupation of our land and our people”.
Obama took a step toward solidifying the alliance this month by completing a long-term, $38 billion security aid package for Israel, the largest such agreement ever for a United States ally.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he would push for a resolution condemning West Bank settlements during his speech at the body in NY.
The Quartet issued the statement in response to the Israeli Prime Minister’s speech at the UN General Assembly, in which he claimed that the responsibility for the deadlock in peace talks rested on the shoulders of the Palestinians.
American politicians have mirrored this concern, with 88 U.S. senators earlier this week submitting a bipartisan letter calling for the White House to uphold USA policy that calls for a veto of any one-sided United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a press release of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
“What the Israeli government is doing in its pursuit of its expansionist settlement plans will destroy whatever possibility and hopes are left of the two-state solution on the 1967 borders”, he said.
The declaration, he said, “paved the road for the nakba”, an Arabic term referring to Israel’s victory in its war of independence and the displacement and dispersal of Palestinians that resulted. Abbas also called on Britain to officially recognize the state of Palestine.
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“There are things we believe we could achieve in the next months, and there are serious concerns that we all have about the security of the region, the need for stability, the need to protect the two-state solution”, Kerry said in a brief statement.
