Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday reiterated his refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and said the Palestinians were prepared to return to the negotiating table with Israel.
“We won’t accept a Jewish state and the Islamization of the struggle in the Middle East,” Abbas said in a speech before the PLO Central Council in Ramallah. “We are moderate Muslims. We are also against the Jewish state because of the many things it would mean in the future. We are against a temporary (Palestinian) state.”
The 124-member Council convened to discuss the future of relations between the Palestinians and Israel in wake of the ongoing stalemate in the peace process and the Israeli government’s recent decision to withhold tax revenues belonging to the PA.
Abbas called on the Council to “reconsider” the functions of the PA, saying there was a need for a “sovereign authority.”
However, Abbas stopped short of calling for cutting off security, economic and political ties between the PA and Israel, as demanded by some PLO officials.
Abbas said that Israel was withholding $1.8 billion Shekels of funds belonging to the Palestinians. “Are we dealing with a state or a bully?” he asked. “How can that happen?”
Abbas urged the world to solve the Palestinian issue on the basis of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. “If Israel withdraws from all the Arab territories it occupied in 1967, all the Arab and Islamic countries would recognize Israel,” he said.
“If Israel wanted peace, it could have done that. If Israel recognizes our rights, it would live in peace. The world must push Israel to wake up. Israel is the one that is hijacking peace and pushing toward tension in the world by continuing its occupation of Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese lands.”
Abbas said the Palestinians were prepared to resume the peace talks if Israel released Palestinian prisoners and halted construction in the settlements. He accused Israel of violating all the agreements it signed with the Palestinians.
“We won’t capitulate,” he stressed. “We won’t resort to violence. A peaceful popular resistance is the only way for us to express ourselves. We are present on our land to stay. We will stay on our land no matter what happens. We are prepared to return to the negotiations although they have violated all the agreements since 1995, seized our funds, entered our cities and killed our people.”
Abbas accused Israel of taking “destructive and racist| measures against the Arab residents of Jerusalem. He claimed that Israel was seeking to evict thousands of Arabs from the city.
Referring to the upcoming elections in Israel, Abbas said that Israel wants to freeze everything now because of the vote. “Honestly, we have no business with the elections and we don’t intervene. We will consider anyone who comes to power in Israel as a partner and we will negotiate with him regardless of his identity and policies.”
Abbas expressed happiness over the formation of the Joint Arab List in Israel. “We in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been unable to unite,” he noted, referring to the power struggle between his Fatah faction and Hamas. He expressed hope that the new Arab list would be able to defend the rights of Israeli Arab citizens and raise the banner of peace.
Abbas criticized Hamas for hindering efforts to reconstruct the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of last summer’s Operation Protective Edge. He said that he was prepared to hold new elections if Hamas agreed to such a move.
In response, Hamas accused Abbas of “political jesting.”
Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said that Hamas was prepared to hold new presidential and parliamentary elections. “The ball is now in Abbas’s court,” he said. “We challenge him to issue a presidential decree calling for new elections, but he’s afraid of what awaits him. He’s also avoiding implementing the reconciliation agreement he signed with Hamas (last year).”
Another Hamas official, Ismail Radwan, rejected Abbas’s talk about his readiness to resume the peace talks with Israel. He said that Abbas prefers negotiations with Israel to reconciliation with Hamas. Radwan also criticized Abbas for ignoring a last week’s Egyptian court verdict that listed Hamas as a “terrorist group.”
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