🇵🇸 State of Palestine - President Addresses General Debate, 76th Session (English) | #UNGA

Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine addresses the general debate of the 76th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (New York, 21-27 September 2021).

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave Israel “one year to withdraw from the Palestinian territory it occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem,” and asked, “If this is not achieved, why maintain recognition of Israel” based on those borders?

In a pre-recorded message presented today (24 Sep) to the General Assembly, Abbas said 73 years after the Palestinian Nakba, many Palestinians, including himself, still carry the deeds to the homes from which they were expelled in 1948. He said while international law affirms the right of return to refugees, Israel on the contrary enacts laws to forcibly displace more Palestinians from Jerusalem which can only be defined as ethnic cleansing.

Abbas said Palestinians remained committed to the Oslo Agreement and honored their obligations under international law, but Israel has not honored its obligations even under signed agreements.

He said, “To those who claim there is no Palestinian partner for peace and that we do not “miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity”, I challenge them to demonstrate that we have rejected even once a genuine and serious initiative to achieve peace, and I accept the judgement of the world in this regard.”

The Palestinian President asked if Israel believed it could simply ignore the legitimate rights of millions of Palestinians and promote a false narrative that ignores the historic and present rights of the Palestinian people to their homeland. He said, “The crimes and aggressive policies of the Israeli occupying power against our people, land and holy sites will not thwart our people’s struggle to achieve their freedom and independence on their land. This colonial regime it has established on our land will disappear, regardless of how long it takes. We will not allow them to hijack our lives and kill our people’s dreams, hopes and aspirations to realize freedom and independence.”

Abbas said, “There are still some countries that refuse to acknowledge the reality that Israel is an occupying Power, practicing apartheid and ethnic cleansing. These countries proudly state that they have shared values with Israel, what shared values are you referring to? This has emboldened Israel, only furthering its arrogance and allowing it to reject and violate all UN resolutions.”

The Palestinian President noted the constructive dialogue currently underway with the United States administration to resume Palestinian-US relations and to undertake steps that will ensure the occupying power’s abidance by signed agreements.

Abbas said this was a moment of truth for the occupying power as the Palestinian people can no longer endure the current situation. He said the Palestinian people would not surrender to the reality of occupation and have several options available to them, including returning to a solution based the original UN partition plan, which would provide them with double the land.

He said, “If the Israeli occupation authorities continue to entrench the reality of one apartheid state as is happening today, our Palestinian people and the entire world will not tolerate such a situation and circumstances on the ground will inevitably impose equal and full political rights for all on the land of historical Palestine, within one State. In all cases, Israel has to choose. These are the options, and it has to choose.”

Abbas called on UN Secretary-General to convene an international peace conference under the sole auspices of the international Quartet and to take the necessary steps towards developing a mechanism to protect Palestinians on the borders of 1967, including east Jerusalem.

He said, “To ensure our initiative is not open-ended, we must state that Israel, the occupying Power, has one year to withdraw from the Palestinian territory it occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem, and we are ready to work throughout this year on the delineation of borders and solving all final status issues under the auspices of the international Quartet and in accordance with United Nations resolutions. If this is not achieved, why maintain recognition of Israel based on the 1967 borders? Why maintain this recognition?”

General debate website: https://gadebate.un.org/

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