Abbas, who is also the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said the Palestinians have accepted the primacy and judgment of global legitimacy, and made a historic and vast sacrifice, when the PLO – the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people – accepted to establish the State of Palestine within the pre-June, 1967, borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Advertisement
“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 settlements are illegal in every aspect and any manifestation”, he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shaking hands with President Barack Obama during their meeting at a New York City hotel on September 21.
“He [also] made clear that the settlements are an obstacle for peace”.
Most member states of the United Nations have already recognised the state of Palestine, but Israel and a number of other countries, including the UK, the USA and Germany, have not.
Netanyahu then lambasted two other United Nations entities, the Human Rights Council and the Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
He insisted “our hand remains outstretched for making peace” but said Israel refuses to “abandon the mentality of hegemony, expansionism and colonization”.
Britain should apologise for its 1917 declaration endorsing the founding of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and should recognise Palestine as a state, Abbas said. You see, this conflict is not about the settlements.
He also urged Palestinians to give up the violence and accept the state of Israel. “This is the least Great Britain can do”, he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the U.N. General Assembly.
More broadly, Israel and the mainstream pro-Israel community are nowhere near as eager to assist Republicans in isolating and embarrassing Obama as they were a year ago, when Netanyahu and AIPAC led opposition to the Iran deal.
“All agreed on the importance of close and continuing coordination of all efforts to achieve the common goal of the two-state solution”, the Quartet said in a statement released after the talks. Abbas asked, according to Haaretz.
On the eve of Obama’s speech, 88 USA senators urged the president to veto any “one-sided” Security Council resolutions and to generally avoid pressing for peace talks absent an initiative by the Israelis.
The president has also been frustrated with Netanyahu’s past comments that cast doubt on the viability of a two-sate solution, which has always been the foundation of peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
The declaration, named for the British foreign secretary at the time, offered a more-nuanced message than Abbas described.
Advertisement
He touted the diplomatic, economic and security relationships Israel has with various nations outside of the UN framework, underscoring that “world leaders increasingly appreciate that Israel is a powerful country with one of the best intelligence services on earth”.
