PARIS, February 8, 2017 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas Tuesday said that preserving the two-state solution whilst a political solution is hard to achieve requires recognition of a Palestinian state akin to the recognition of Israel.
Addressing the French Senate in Paris, Abbas criticized the Israeli parliament’s law legalizing settlements in private Palestinian land as being “contrary to international law and a barefaced defiance to the will of the international community, especially the United Nations Security Council resolution 2334.”
The law, also known as the regularization or formalization law, would retroactively legalize under Israeli law dozens of illegal settlement outposts built on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.
These outposts were built without an official approval from Israeli authorities, but tacitly supported by successive Israeli governments, part of an effort to colonize as much Palestinian land in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as possible.
Under international law, all Israeli settlements, including outposts, are illegal.
Abbas pledged to work with international courts to safeguard the existence and survival of Palestinian people on their national territory.
Highlighting recent Israeli government’s announcements of the construction of thousands of new settler units in West Bank settlements, Abbas warned of the utmost gravity of such announcements which foster the reality of an apartheid state.
Abbas called for the UN Security Council resolution 2334 to be implemented, reiterating that all settlements constructed by Israel since 1967 in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, are illegal.
Israel must halt all settlement construction and expansion activities, he said.
“It is essential that an international follow-up mechanism be developed this year in order to help both sides reach a final peace agreement in based on a specified timeframe,” he reiterated.
Abbas expressed his willingness to work with US President Donald Trump’s administration to bring peace to the region on the basis of international resolutions and the two-state solution.
Regarding the possible relocation of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Abbas warned against the consequences of relocating any embassy to Jerusalem, a move that violates international law. He affirmed that Jerusalem is the capital of the future Palestinian state and must remain accessible to people from three monotheistic faiths.
He called on Israel not to proceed with the obliteration of the Palestinian identity and character of Jerusalem and not to defile holy sites.
Abbas condemned and expressed his surprise that the British government invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the infamous Balfour Declaration of 1917.
He demanded that the British government apologize for its destruction and dispossession of the Palestinian people and recognize the state of Palestine following the House of Commons’ 2014 recommendation.
K.F/M.H
