RAMALALH, January 25, 2011 (WAFA) - President Mahmoud Abbas returned home Tuesday from a trip to Egypt receiving a hero’s welcome as he arrived at his headquarters.
Thousands of Palestinians gathered at the Muqata to welcome Abbas and to show their support following reports by Al Jazeera satellite channel on the Palestinian negotiations with Israel. They cheered pro-Abbas slogans and raised his picture.
President Abbas thanked the people who gathered to greet him and told them that their presence “was the best response to (al-Jazeera) lies.”
“Whether we respond to them through the media or the press, this is the best response to them,” he said.
“We are confident that we are on the right track, he said, “the right path to regain our rights.”
The Palestinian position is that these rights “has not and will never change,” said Abbas.
He stressed that Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine and the refugee issue will be dealt with according to UN General Assembly resolution 194.
Abbas said all the negotiations documents were given to the Arab and Palestinian leaders and that he had nothing to hide.
“We have nothing to hide,” said Abbas, “and we challenge anyone to show us one document we have not given to the Arabs and the leaders here.”
Abbas said al-Jazeera has forged and changed the documents.
“They forge and change them, but we are ready to expose their forgery. We are ready to go there to prove what they have changed,” he said.
Abbas said that this campaign has started now as the Palestinians get ready to ask the UN Security Council to vote on a resolution condemning the settlements and as the world is beginning to recognize the Palestinian state.
“We told Israel and the world that if you want negotiations, we have two things: Stop settlements and recognize international legality. Without these things, we will not go back to negotiations,” he said.
“We are not shaken by these lies and the unfair campaigns,” he said. “We are used to them.”
He referred to the Goldstone report on the Israeli war on Gaza two years ago and how after complaints that the Palestinians have not supported it, those who spoke about it are not doing anything to support it anymore.
Abbas told the crowds that the Palestinian leaders “get our legitimacy from you and no one can make us give up one inch of our land or the refugees or Jerusalem.”
President Abbas also condemn the suicide attack at an airport in Russia saying it was a “criminal act.”
M.A.
