NEW YORK – Middle East peace is not possible without recognition of Palestinian statehood at the pre-1967 lines, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the United Nations on Thursday, amid a push for an Israeli normalization deal with Saudi Arabia.
“Those who think that peace can prevail in the Middle East without the Palestinian people enjoying their full, legitimate, and national rights, would be mistaken,” Abbas said as he addressed the high-level opening session of the 78th General Assembly.
He spoke amid increased diplomatic activity for the normalization deal, which would include Israeli concessions to the Palestinians.
Abbas did not mention the possibility of a Saudi deal in his speech on Thursday afternoon, nor did he sound as if he was engaged in a peace process.
Abbas called on the UN to recognize Palestine as one of its member states, a move which would need the approval of the Security Council. It’s expected that the US would block all such membership attempts.
Israel digging under Temple Mount
The Palestinian leader pledged to continue to pursue Israel legally in international arenas such as the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Both courts are weighing cases involving Israel.
He accused Israel of “entrenching its apartheid” policies against his people and attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
“As I stand before you here, the Israeli racist right-wing government continues its attacks on our people and its army and its racist terrorist settlers continue to intimate and kill our people, steal our money, and resources,” Abbas said.
He took Israel to task its actions in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which is located on the Temple Mount.
“The occupying power is feverishly digging tunnels on and around al-Aqsa Mosque, which would cause its collapse,” a move that would lead to an “explosion.”
Israel, he said, is attempting to transform the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a religious war.
Abbas demanded that Israel allow elections in east Jerusalem, a step it has refused to authorize for fear of legitimizing the Palestinian claim to that section of the city as their future capital.
He called for the criminalization of the denial of the Nakba, the Palestinian national “Catastrophe Day” to mourn the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and the resulting destruction of Palestinian villages and the displacement of 700,000 Palestinians who became refugees.
“This painful anniversary continues to be ignored and denied by Israel, which is the party that is primarily responsible for this Nakba… I call upon you today to criminalize its denial, and to designate the 15th of May of each year as an international day to commemorate its anniversary,” Abbas stated.
“It’s a day that honors the memory of ‘hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were killed in massacres committed by Zionist gangs and whose villages were demolished,’” Abbas explained.
“This is the least that the United Nations should do in honor of these victims and in condemnation of this human tragedy,” he added.
“Zionist and Israeli propaganda” have deliberately attempted to destroy the memory of that event, he charged.
The Palestinian people, he said, would continue its resistance to Israel’s “brutal occupation until it is defeated from our land.”
“Our people defend their homeland and their legitimate rights, through peaceful popular resistance as a strategic option for self-defense,” Abbas said.
The Israeli delegation was not present during his speech.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said that just a few weeks ago Abbas “defended Hitler and blamed the Jews for being massacred during the Holocaust. Today he stood at [the UNGA] podium and and called the vicious Palestinian terror attacks peaceful resistance.”
“Let me be clear, terror is terror. President Abbas has proved today that the is no partner for peace and that he is totally detached from reality,” Erdan stated.
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