Abbas: Replace Trump plan with int’l parley for two states at '67 lines

Palestinians have warned that the US peace initiative, under which both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have recognized Israel, has normalized the Israeli “occupation.”

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends a virtual meeting with Palestinian factions over Israel and the United Arab Emirates' deal to normalise ties, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank September 3, 2020 (photo credit: ALAA BADARNEH/POOL VIA REUTERS)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends a virtual meeting with Palestinian factions over Israel and the United Arab Emirates' deal to normalise ties, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank September 3, 2020
(photo credit: ALAA BADARNEH/POOL VIA REUTERS)
The international community must reject the US peace plan and instead hold an international conference at the start of 2021 to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the pre-1967 lines, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the UN General Assembly Friday.
“I call on the secretary-general of the United Nations to undertake, in cooperation with the Quartet and the Security Council, preparations to convene an international conference with full authority and with the participation of all concerned parties, early next year, to engage in a genuine peace process,” Abbas told the opening session of the 75th UNGA.
Any peace deal with Israel, should be “based on international law, UN resolutions and the relevant terms of reference, leading to an end of the occupation and the achievement by the Palestinian people of their freedom and independence within their State, with east Jerusalem as its capital, on the 1967 borders, and resolving all final status issues, notably the question of the refugees, based on resolution 194,” Abbas said.
He attacked the US-led process, under which Israel is making peace with Arab nations prior to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It’s a move that is contrary to the Arab Peace Initiative, which forbade Arab normalization with Israel until a two-state resolution to the conflict based on the pre-1967 lines was achieved.
Palestinians have warned that the US peace initiative, under which both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have recognized Israel, has normalized the Israeli “occupation.”
Abbas echoed that belief and warned against any attempt by the Trump administration to dictate the terms of a peace deal not based on the pre-1967 lines.
“Those who believe the Palestinian people can coexist with the occupation or be subdued by pressure and diktats are under an illusion, as are those who are being misled to believe that they can circumvent our people, who bear this struggle and are its only address,” he said.
Abbas told the UN that Palestinian statehood was long overdue and swore the Palestinians would resist any attempt to prolong Israeli control of their lands.
“Until when will the Palestinian people remain under Israeli occupation – and will the question of millions of Palestine refugees remain without a just solution in accordance with what the UN has determined over 70 years ago?” Abbas asked.
“We will not kneel or surrender – and we will not deviate from our fundamental positions, and we shall overcome,” Abbas said.
“Let everyone know there will be no peace, no security, no stability and no coexistence in our region while this occupation continues,” he said.
In-spite of their normalization deals with Israel, both Bahrain and the U.A.E. have stressed that they adhere to all other aspects of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which calls for two states based on the pre-1967 lines.
Bahrain emphasized this point during its Thursday address to the UNGA, saying it believes it could have both peace with Israel and help Palestinians pursue a two-state solution at the pre-1967 lines.  
Many of those countries who have spoken of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have supported the Palestinian insistence that any two-state resolution to the conflict must be based on the pre-1967 lines.
On Friday, Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah added its voice to this position. He told UNGA that the Palestinian cause “still occupies a central historical and pivotal position in our Arab and Islamic worlds.”
Sabah said his country supported efforts to “re-launch negotiations within a specific timeline to reach a just and comprehensive peace according to the terms of preference of the peace process, international legitimacy resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative; ending the Israeli occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital on the pre-1967 borders.”