Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas told the UN General Assembly on Thursday that Israel’s settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank was destroying any hope of a two-state solution. Officials in the United Nations have also said that the Israeli settlement expansion has surged in the past two months.
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Abbas confirmed that the Arab side will continue to exert all efforts for a Security Council resolution on the settlements and the terror of the settlers, affirming that they are undertaking extensive consultations with the Arab countries and other friendly countries on this matter.
With the continuation of Israel’s racial discrimination against the Palestinian people, and the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip, Abbas said all these policies and actions and measures are the reasons for the failure of all global efforts of the Quartet.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to address Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, during a speech before the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.
Netanyahu rejected the idea of greater United Nations involvement in the peace process.
Netanyahu saved some of his most scathing attacks for United Nations bodies which he accused of constant bias, conjuring up the image of their waging virtual war against Israel. “The road to peace runs through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not through NY”.
The UN, begun as a moral force, has become a moral farce, he declared, citing the disgrace of the General Assembly which previous year passed 20 resolutions against Israel and just three against all the other countries.
“Our relationships with these nations are not just based on the traditional trade of goods, but on the aspirations of young people filled with the desire to better their countries and improve the world”, Danon said.
Abbas denounced Israel’s reluctance to involve the global community in the Mideast peace process.
The Palestinians have rebuffed Netanyahu’s past offers for such meetings, saying his hard-line position on all core issues made dialogue impossible. He accused Israel of “continuing to evade” an global conference that France wants to hold before the end of the year to work out a framework for negotiating peace.
Abbas said “our hand remains outstretched for making peace” but he questioned whether any Israeli leader is ready to make “a true peace. that will abandon the mentality of hegemony, expansionism and colonization”.
Palestinian Ambassador to the U.N. Riyad Mansour dismissed Netanyahu’s suggestion that Abbas address the Knesset as a “new gimmick”.
Niederman further said the protesters want the regime to stop imprisoning people for avoiding to join the army or “we ask the world body” to pile pressure on the Tel Aviv to that effect.
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He again accused Israel of evading positive global initiatives meant for reaching the objective, saying Israelis have over the past year shunned efforts by France for convening a meeting before the end of the year to focus on a framework and timeline for ending the occupation. “I’m ready to begin negotiations to achieve this today, not tomorrow, not next week, today”. He said Abbas’ “dangerous words” were “a ticking time-bomb” that would lead to more attacks against Israel.
