Frustrated Abbas blasts Israel pact
Leader tells UN assembly Oslo Accords no longer apply to Palestinian authority
NEW YORK— President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority declared Wednesday at the United Nations that the authority was no longer bound by the Oslo Accords that formed the basis for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In his annual General Assembly speech, Abbas accused Israel of having violated the accords and subsequent agreements. He asserted that there was no reason Palestinians should remain faithful to them as long as Israelis were not.
“We cannot continue to be bound by these signed agreements with Israel, and Israel must assume fully all its responsibility as an occupying power,” Abbas said.
There had been speculation fed by Abbas’s aides that he would drop a “bombshell” announcement during his speech. While the announcement sounded serious, the practical effects were not immediately clear.
Abbas delivered his speech against a backdrop of growing frustration among many Palestinians over the paralysis in peace negotiations with Israel, the most protracted conflict vexing the UN since its founding 70 years ago next month.
His own support within the Palestinian diaspora has suffered as a result.
With peace talks going nowhere, Abbas has moved over the past three years to seek international recognition of Palestinian statehood.
At the UN, members voted overwhelmingly to upgrade the Palestinian delegation to non-member observer state status in 2012.
Since then the Palestinians have used that status to attain voting rights in other UN agencies and to join the International Criminal Court, where they have threatened
“While the Israeli government pays lip service to the two-state solution internationally, domestically it employs policies aimed at destroying what’s left of Palestine.” PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS
to seek war-crimes prosecutions against Israel as the occupier of Palestinian lands.
Less than three weeks ago the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to allow the Palestinians to fly their national flag at the UN headquarters, a symbolic step that nonetheless angered the Israelis, who called it a cynical gesture that would do nothing to advance the peace process.
Last year Abbas used his General Assembly speech to push for a Security Council resolution that would demand an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory by a certain date, and define a Palestinian state roughly along the pre-1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
But the momentum for such a resolution has faded with the world’s increasing focus on fighting the Islamic State and grappling with the global refugee crisis.
Abbas had given a foretaste of his General Assembly speech in an opinion piece published Tuesday on the Huffington Post website, in which he placed responsibility for the failure of negotiations with the Israelis.
“While the Israeli government pays lip service to the two-state solution internationally, domestically it employs policies aimed at destroying what’s left of Palestine,” he wrote.
The Israeli government has long claimed that it is willing to re-engage in peace talks with the Palestinians and has charged that Abbas has poisoned the atmosphere by inciting Palestinian attacks against Israel.