In an address to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on the Security Council to pass a resolution to end the Israeli occupation by ordering the immediate resumption of negotiations with a set time limit to demarcate the boundaries of a Palestinian state.
“The introduction of a draft resolution aspires to correct the deficiency of the previous efforts to achieve peace,” Abbas said to the General Assembly in New York.
“We are the only people remaining under occupation in the world,” he continued.
Abbas did not say when this resolution has to be implemented or outline what repercussions Israel could face if it does not comply. Senior Palestinian officials confirmed a draft has already been written in consultation with members of the Arab League and Hamas. Over the weekend while in Cairo negotiating a long-term ceasefire in Gaza, Hamas officials were said to have again signed off on the text, pledging support privately. Those officials include Hamas’s political bureau leader Khaled Mashal.
Conflicting time tables for ending the occupation
During the General Assembly this week ranking members of the Palestinian government made conflicting remarks about precisely when this Security Council proposal will be submitted. Member of the PLO Central Council Dr. Mustafa Barghouti said it will be released “immediately”– within a month– while Economic Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said he thought the resolution would be presented the following day. However, the Palestinian delegation to the UN left New York shortly after Abbas’s speech.
Abbas said his resolution would include a “specific timeframe” to fully remove Israel’s occupation in the terms, “stipulated in the Arab Peace Initiative,”—in which Arab states offered to normalize relations with Israel once it recognizes a Palestinian state on the June 1967 lines, an offer that has been on the table since 2002. Beyond those general details, however, no other information has been released, including when this political project will begin.
That lack of clarity seems to extend to the Palestinian government. Discussing when Israel has to return to 1967 lines in a Thursday meeting at the General Assembly with the Chilean president, “Abu Mazen [Abbas] said it could be six months, it could be a year, it doesn’t matter as far as there is a deadline and that’s something he said in the meeting,” stated Spokesperson for the PLO Xavier Abu Eid. Abu Eid said, “I’ve heard from six months to three years,” continuing, “The idea is putting a deadline to end the occupation.”
Earlier this month, Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat notioned a three-year deadline to end the occupation. But Abu Eid said, “I could tell you based on gossip three years, but I do not have three years.”
Palestinian Economic Minister Mr. Shtayyeh said this afternoon the text of the Security Council resolution he saw makes clear a deadline of three months, and Dr. Barghouti added that once an agreement on borders has been reached, Israel will then have three years to remove their civilians and forces. If the United States vetoes this resolution inside the Security Council, as many expect, Dr. Barghouti said the Palestinian leaders would then seek the option of acceding to the Rome Statute to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) where they could then charge Israel with crimes against humanity.
Weeks ago Palestinian leaders announced that letters to join the ICC have been drafted and a separate memorandum has been signed by all Palestinian parties supporting the measure, but senior members of the PLO say at this point there is no timetable for when they would actually join the court.
Inside the Palestinian government “there is one opinion that we should join the Rome statute immediately,” and another to wait, said Dr. Barghouti who emphasized that his personal position is that the PLO should join the ICC in conjunction with the Security Council Resolution. Indeed there is overwhelming support among Palestinians to pursue the ICC, and for weeks Palestinian officials have fingered Abbas as the lone holdout. “Some think the Rome Statute is like the nuclear option,” said Barghouti of his guarded colleagues. “In my opinion this could be a reasonable opinion before Gaza, not after.” Indeed Abbas also mentioned Gaza as an impetus for appealing to the United Nations for support, stating, “This last war against Gaza was a series of absolute war crimes carried out before the eyes and ears of the entire world, moment by moment, in a manner that makes it inconceivable that anyone today can claim that they did not realize the magnitude and horror of the crime. The difference today is that the scale of this genocidal crime is larger.”
‘A most abhorrent form of Apartheid’
Abbas hopes to finally lock down a mechanism to address final status issues–namely water, borders, Jerusalem and refugees. Those matters have been on hold for the past 25 years; not since the onset of the Oslo Accords have Palestinian leaders discussed core issues of the conflict in negotiations with Israel.
In his speech to the U.N General Assembly Abbas chastised Israel saying,”the future proposed by the Israeli government for the Palestinian people is at best isolated ghettos for Palestinians on fragmented lands.” He continued that if there is no deadline to end the occupation the West Bank and Gaza will be marooned to “the subjugation of the racist settlers and army of occupation, and at worst will be a most abhorrent form of Apartheid.”
Abbas made additional remarks on the heightened tensions in Israeli society that led to a series of violent attacks against Palestinians, hitting a fever pitch during the summer. “This culture of racism, incitement and hatred was glaringly manifested in the despicable, appalling crime committed months ago by fascist settlers, who abducted the young Jerusalemite boy Mohammed Abu Khdeir, burnt him alive and killed him,” he said.
Update: The State Department was quick to denounce Abbas’s speech for the comments on the occupation. AP’s Matt Lee posted this statement last night:
>> The State Department was quick to denounce Abbas’s speech for the comments on the occupation.
Yeah, it’s always terribly counterproductive when the woman chained in the bunker provocatively screams in desperation that she’s being held captive by a rapist. It really dampens the positive atmosphere in the bunker.
it seems as tho it is dragging on forever ..but then this:
iow, there’s 3 months to agree to borders and the rest of the three years to pull out? if this is the gist of it does that mean if there’s no proposal in 3 months they go to the ICC?
when is abbas going to keel over?
This is yet another cry for help by the Palestinians, and most probably this too, will go unheeded.
The US will twist every arm it could on behalf of it’s little protege, to prevent any sort of resolution that will end this idiotic but brutal occupation. If the world does not do the right thing, right now, just after witnessing the massacre in Gaza, and see the devastation Israel inflicts every couple of years or so, then nothing will convince them, that these poor people are in desperate need to be free of this occupation, have basic human rights, and be able to defend themselves from the zionist onslaught, land grabs, and years of blockades.
Shame on the US for criticizing Abbas’s pleas to the world to help end the occupation. We know the game it plays on behalf of Israel. Basically the message from the US to the world is, that they support this occupation, in fact Barbara Boxer just pushed for a resolution making sure they have more support, more weapons, and everlasting love from the US. Despite the violent effort by Israel to break the unity government, it seems the group is still united. Israel uses every cheap excuse in the book to keep this charade going, and the US keeps patting it’s head in agreement.
A lot of words for an old guy. What can’t he just say 2 sates for 2 people? Then he would have Israel on board
The notion that Israel is going to talk about final status positions is absurd, they have failed to talk about them for the past 20 years, far better for them to continue the talks i.e, the annexation process, it is obvious the Palestinian leadership do not have a coherent plan of action, they seem to be waiting for something to turn up, it will, in the form of thousands of new settlements. If I were a Zionist I would be laughing at the antics of Abbas and Co. In his speech Abbas said Israel wants to see the Palestinians in isolated ghettos, in my opinion the Palestinians will be lucky to get that so long as Abbas keeps deferring to his masters in US/Israel. Because Abbas continues looking to start further futile negotiations while refusing to join all the UN Agencies and the ICC, the Palestinians suffering will continue http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/un-abbas-accuses-israel-waging-war-genocide-2108714766