Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday gave Israel only one year to withdraw from the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, according to Reuters.
“If this is not achieved, why maintain recognition of Israel based on the 1967 borders? Why to maintain this recognition?,” Abbas asked in a recorded statement aired before the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)’s 76th session in New York.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gives Israel ‘one year’ to withdraw from occupied territory https://t.co/Xjjne442SR | #UNGA pic.twitter.com/5S9b7Lp6wj
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 25, 2021
According to Reuters, Abbas said Israel was “destroying the prospect of a political settlement based on the two-state solution” through its settlements on West Bank land it captured in 1967.
“Our people will not surrender to the reality of the occupation and its illegal policies and practices,” the Middle East Monitor reported Abbas saying. “They will pursue their just struggle to fulfill their right to self-determination, and all options are available, including returning to a solution based on the US Resolution 181 adopted in 1947, which gives the State of Palestine 44 percent of the area of Palestine, double the space provided on the 1967 borders.”
At #UNGA, president of the State of Palestine asked @antonioguterres to convene international conference. Mahmoud Abbas defended a two-state solution with Israel and said he’s “ready to work throughout this year on the delineation of borders.”https://t.co/JvAVv3L1hS
— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) September 24, 2021
The PA president stressed that the Palestinians “will go to the International Court of Justice as the supreme international judicial body on the issue of the legality of the occupation of the land of the state of Palestine. We have extended our hands time and again for peace, and still, we cannot find a partner in Israel that believes in and accepts the two-state solution,” MEMO added.
Meanwhile, he blamed the international community for Israel’s inability to recognize the Palestinian state and ignoring Palestinian partners, according to MEMO.
(The Palestine Chronicle, MEMO, Social Media)
