Abbas condemns Israel's ‘illegitimate’ settlement

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described his country’s freshly-minted United Nations non-member observer state status as a “historic achievement for the Palestinian people” and “a turning point in the struggle against the occupation.” Abbas said the designation upgrade altered the Palestinian territories’ status from “disputed” to “occupied” territories to which the Fourth Geneva Convention applies, prohibiting Israel from making changes to enforce changes in the territories. Speaking at the Ramallah presidential headquarters on Saturday as the Fatah Advisory Council met for the fifth time under the banner of “the State and International Legitimacy,” Abbas described the UN General Assembly vote which granted Palestine the new status as “unprecedented.” The vote, he added, “reaffirmed [the Palestinian people’s] right to self-determination and an independent state.” Abbas said the Palestinian Authority was subjected to “tremendous pressures” to dissuade it from seeking the UN status update, but had “insisted” on proceeding “in order to preserve the Palestinian people’s legitimate national rights and save the peace process from the Israeli measures and practices that aim at terminating the globally-supported two-state solution.” The Palestinian President said the UN move was “unanimously backed” by Arab states and the global He said that the settlements, which he stressed that in all their forms and shapes are illegitimate and illegal and are not acceptable, should be removed to achieve peace and stability in the region. Abbas also described the newly-announced E1 settlement drive as a “red line” and added “we will not allow it to be realised.” He said he was involved in contact “on all levels” to prevent the new settlement project from going ahead, adding that it threatened to “torpedo” the peace process. The Palestinian President said: “The entire world oppose settlements and say they are illegal,” adding “International resolutions say settlements are an obstacle to peace and therefore they should be stopped in total in all the Palestinian territories, particularly in occupied Jerusalem, in order to resume serious and real negotiations on all final status issues to reach a comprehensive and just peace.” Abbas said the Palestinian Authority was “studying all options” in the event of Israel “continuing settlement activities, dictating actions, blockading and withholding the Palestinian people’s funds.”   On the subject of reconciliation, Abbas said the only route to achieving that goal was through elections “as agreed by Fatah and Hamas in Doha and Cairo.” The President added that the Central Electoral Committee “must be allowed to resume work in the Gaza Strip” in order to complete procedures for presidential and legislative elections “to pave the way for reconciliation” which Abbas said was “an urgent national need.” The President denied reports of an intended confederacy with Jordan, saying that efforts now focused on achieving “independence” and “full sovereignty” for “a Palestinian state within 1967 borders with the Eastern Jerusalem as its capital.” Abbas also described the current financial crisis in Palestine as “extremely stifling,” adding that it was “redoubled” due to Israel withholding Palestinian tax funds. He called on the international community to press Israel to release the funds “to enable the Palestinian government to perform its duties towards the Palestinian people.”