Abbas: We’ll cut ties with Israel, US
PA leader says break-off includes security relations
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Saturday that he has decided to sever all relations with Israel and the US in protest against President Donald Trump’s recently unveiled plan for Mideast peace.
“We have informed the Israelis and Americans of this decision through two letters,” Abbas said in a speech at an emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo.
The first letter, he said, was delivered to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while the second one was handed to the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
“We informed them that Israel has abrogated the agreements signed with the Palestinians and violated the international legitimacy on which these agreements are based,” Abbas said.
“Therefore, we notified them that there will be no relations with Israel and the US. That includes security relations, in light of their disregard of the signed agreements and international legitimacy. The Israelis need to assume responsibility as an occupying power. We have the right to pursue our national struggle with peaceful means to end the occupation. We’re not going to carry rifles.”
The Prime Minister’s Office had no comment on Abbas’s decision. Blue and White Party head Benny Gantz tweeted: “Abbas has once again not missed an opportunity to be a rejectionist. The time has come to start working on behalf of the future generations and peace, instead of getting stuck in the past and preventing a future of hope for the entire region.”
Although the PA had halted political contacts with Israel and the Trump administration, it has retained security coordination with the IDF and the CIA.
Abbas has been facing pressure from Palestinians, including his ruling Fatah faction, to halt security coordination with the IDF and renounce all agreements with Israel.
Before delivering his speech, Abbas met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi and discussed with him the repercussions of Trump’s plan.
Abbas confirmed that he
refused to accept phone calls and letters from Trump before the announcement of the plan.
“It’s as if I came from the Moon,” Abbas said. “If you want to make a deal, I should be your first partner. He wanted to send me the plan to read it. I refused to accept it. I refused to take Trump’s phone calls. I also refused to accept any letters from him.”
Reiterating his strong rejection of Trump’s plan, Abbas warned that it would have “ramifications” on the region because it “contradicts international agreements.”
He said he was planning to participate in meetings of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and African states to seek their support for Palestinian rejection of Trump’s plan.
Abbas said he was convinced that Trump doesn’t know anything about the plan which, he claimed, was prepared by US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, the “boy,” Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and former US presidential adviser Jason Greenblatt.
“These three gave Trump everything,” Abbas said. “They gave Trump Netanyahu’s ideas. The US is no longer our friend. We want a multi-party mechanism for implementing international legitimacy on the basis of international resolutions [and] the Arab Peace Initiative. There will be no room at the table for Trump’s deal.”
Abbas said he was opposed to the plan’s determination that Jerusalem will be the undivided capital of Israel.
“I won’t accept the annexation of Jerusalem to Israel,” he said. “I won’t record in my history that I sold Jerusalem. Jerusalem does not belong to me alone. Jerusalem belongs to all of us. It’s our capital.”
He also scoffed at the four-year period during which the Palestinians would be required to prove their “good intentions” – as envisaged by the Trump plan.
“They want to give us a gift after four years,” Abbas said. But this gift will be given to us after four years. Israel, on the other hand, will start implementing it immediately by annexing the settlements. During the four years, we are expected to prove our good intentions.”
Abbas also repeated his rejection of the demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
“They want me to recognize Israel as a Jewish state,” he remarked. “They made this demand seven or eight years ago. When a state wants to change its name, it should go to the United Nations. It’s none of my business. I know that it’s not a Jewish state. I also know there are 1.9 million Arabs and another 1.5 million Russians who are Christians and Muslims. Only a small number of the Ethiopians are Jews.”
Netanyahu tweeted in response, “It seems that Abbas has not yet heard of the tribes of Israel. Immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union are our brothers and sisters. They are the flesh of our flesh, Jews from birth who were in exile and who dreamed generations of returning to Zion and who have fulfilled their dreams.”
Gantz tweeted that Abbas’s “ignorance and contempt for our brothers, the immigrants from the former Soviet Union and the Ethiopians who are an integral of the Jewish people, is shameful. This is not how you build peace.”
The Trump plan, Abbas said, requires the Palestinians to accept Israel’s annexation of parts of the West Bank. “There will be no sovereignty on the Palestinian lands,” he said. “They want to give us a state without sovereignty and with no borders with Jordan. How will we travel to Jordan? They want to give us a Swiss cheese.”
Abbas expressed satisfaction with the response of the international community to Trump’s plan. He pointed out that even Congress had rejected the plan as the “sham of the century.”
“The world won’t accept injustice,” he added. “We are 13 million people. We have tried to spread the culture of peace. In the West Bank, we have peaceful demonstrations. As for the Gaza Strip, it has its own circumstances. According to a study, there isn’t one Palestinian in ISIS. In fact, there are only three Arabs from Israel. We are serious about fighting global terrorism. I’m not a nihilist. We don’t want [the Arabs] to stand against the US. We want them to support us.”
Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.