The Mission of the State of Palestine would like to share the detail of President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech to the UN Security Council on 11/02/2020.
His speech reiterated Palestine’s rejection of the US/Israeli deal and said that no one has the right to gift Jerusalem to another state.
“I call on the international community in its entirety to pressure Israel, the occupying Power, to end its occupation practices and policies that aim to annex Palestinian land. What right do you have to annex our land? You will destroy the chances of peace.”
The objection is on the following grounds:
- The deal was formulated without any discussion with Palestine, and without any consideration for international law, UN resolutions or previous bi-lateral agreements – “This deal does not constitute an international endeavour. It came from one country with the support of another with the aim of imposing it on the world”
- “The deal ignores the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination, freedom, independence in their own State; and attempts to grant legitimacy to illegal measures such as the settlements and expropriation and annexation of Palestinian land”
- “The plan presented by President Trump…denies the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, and removes East Jerusalem from under Palestinian sovereignty, and will not lead to the implementation of the vision of two independent sovereign States, Israel and Palestine.”
- “This deal…consecrates occupation and annexation by military force, and would lead to an Apartheid system, an anachronistic reality being implemented today in Palestine.”.
Instead, President Abbas reaffirmed that Palestine is willing to sit down and negotiate a just and lasting peace. He re-affirmed Palestine’s commitment to building its institutions based on the culture of peace and embedded in international law.