Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, demanded full membership for “the state of Palestine” in the United Nations while addressing the organization’s General Assembly on Thursday.
Abbas spoke to international heads of state by video after he and the rest of his delegation were denied visas to enter the United States by the Trump administration, reportedly for national security reasons.
According to Breitbart News, Abbas said that the Palestinian Authority has met the standards for membership in the international body because it “recognized Israel’s right to exist in 1988 and 1993.”
He then read a list of demands to the U.N., including an immediate end to Israeli operations, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces, unconditional access for the movement of goods into the Gaza Strip, and for Israel to “stop using starvation as a weapon.”
Abbas also called for “the release of all hostages and prisoners on both sides,” an end to “the terrorism of settlers and the theft of Palestinian lands and property,” and “stopping the aggression against the status quo in holy sites.”
“These are all unilateral actions that undermine the two-state solution in Gaza,” he said, according to Breitbart.
“We do not want an armed state,” the Palestinian leader said, adding that Hamas and other militant groups would “have to hand over their weapons to the Palestinian National Authority, as part of a process to build the institutions of one state, one law, and one legal security force.”
After asserting that the Palestinians in Gaza have been facing “a war of genocide, destruction, starvation, and displacement waged by the Israeli occupation forces,” Abbas said that they “reject” the attack on the Jewish state that “Hamas carried out on the 7th of October.”
“These actions did not represent the Palestinian people, nor do they represent their just struggle for freedom and independence,” he said, according to Breitbart.
“We have affirmed, and we will continue to affirm, that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the state of Palestine, and that we are ready to bear full responsibility for governance and security there. Hamas will not have a role to play in governance,” Abbas said.
While demanding full control of Gaza for the Palestinian Authority, Abbas suggested that “Palestinian forces” might be able to wrest control of the territory if they were backed by the United Nations.
The Palestinian Authority stands “ready to work with U.S. President Donald Trump, and with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and friends at the United Nations, and all partners to implement the peace plan that was approved at the conference that was held on the 22nd of September, in a way that would lead toward a just peace and regional cooperation,” Abbas said.
He ended by declaring that “Palestine is ours” and described Jerusalem as “the jewel of our heart, and our eternal capital.”
“We will not leave our homeland,” Abbas said. “We will not leave our lands. Our people will remain rooted like the olive trees, firm as the rocks.”
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