by Khaled Abu Toameh
PA President Mahmoud Abbas called on Israel to withdraw to the pre-1967 lines in one year.
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas makes a
statement as he attends the Revolutionary Council Meeting of Fatah
Movement at the Palestinian Presidential Office in Ramallah, on December
18, 2019.
(photo credit: FLASH90)
|
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s call on Israel to withdraw to the pre-1967 lines in one year has elicited jeers from several Palestinians, who renewed their appeal to him to resign.
Abbas
issued his ultimatum to Israel on Friday in a pre-recorded speech
before the United Nations General Assembly’s 76th session in New York.
Referring
to his plan to convene an international peace conference under the
auspices of the Quartet members – the US, European Union, Russia and the
UN – Abbas said: “To ensure our initiative is not open-ended, we must
state that Israel, the occupying power, has one year to withdraw from
the Palestinian territory it occupied in 1967, including east Jerusalem,
and we are ready to work throughout this year on the delineation of
borders and solving all final status issues under the auspices of the
international Quartet and in accordance with United Nations
resolutions.”
Abbas
warned that if the demand is not met, the Palestinians will revoke
their recognition of Israel and go to the International Court of
Justice.
Addressing
Israeli leaders, Abbas said: “Do not oppress and corner the Palestinian
people and deprive them of dignity and the right to their land and
state, as you will destroy everything. Our patience and the patience of
our people have limits. This is our land, our Jerusalem, our Palestinian
identity, and we shall defend it until the occupier leaves.”
Senior
PA officials and the ruling Fatah faction heaped praise on Abbas,
describing his speech as “courageous, unprecedented and historic” and
saying it represented a “milestone” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
PA
Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh hailed the speech and said it “placed
the international community in front of its responsibilities to end the
Israeli occupation.”
Shtayyeh
described the speech as a “road map to end the occupation within a
year,” adding that it should lead to “either a [Palestinian] state on
the borders of 1967 or a state on the borders of 1947 in accordance with
[UN] Partition Resolution 181.”
He was referring to the UN General Assembly resolution that called
for the partition of the British-ruled Palestine Mandate into a Jewish
state and an Arab state. The resolution was accepted by the Jews in
Palestine, but rejected by the Arabs.
Several
Fatah officials, including Jibril Rajoub, also praised Abbas’s address
and said that his statements expressed the wishes of all Palestinians.
Many Palestinians,
however, scoffed at Abbas’s speech, especially his one-year ultimatum
to Israel to withdraw to the pre-1967 lines, including east Jerusalem.
The PA president did not say anything new in his address to the UN General Assembly, they argued.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas adjusts his glasses as he listens
during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken (not pictured), in the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 25, 2021.
(credit: ALEX BRANDON/POOL VIA REUTERS)Shortly
after the speech, social media activists tweeted under the hashtags
“Abbas does not represent me” and “Go away.” Some asked sarcastically
whether he was planning to declare a new uprising or return to the armed
struggle if Israel failed to meet the ultimatum.
“The old man’s speech represents less than 19% of our people,” commented Palestinian writer Iyad al-Qarra.
A
poll published last week by the Palestinian Center for Policy and
Survey Research showed that almost 80% of the Palestinian public demand
the resignation of Abbas.
Some
Palestinians attached images of laughing emojis to posts containing
Abbas’s call on Israel to withdraw to the pre-1967 lines within one
year.
😄#عباس_لا_يمثلني pic.twitter.com/L4AEPe3yDw
— عزات جمال 🇵🇸 #فلسطين (@3zJamal) September 24, 2021
“Wow, I’m sure the Israelis are in a state of hysteria because of
President Abbas’s ultimatum,” said Akram Maslamani, a university student
from the West Bank, in a snide remark. “He woke up after all these
years to discover that Israel is still occupying our land. This man has
become a joke.”
“Abbas
in a nutshell: He acknowledged the failure of the policies of the
Palestinian Authority and Fatah, that the occupation continues to deny
the rights of our people, that betting on the international community
has failed and that Palestinian diplomacy has failed,” commented
Palestinian journalist Ayman Abed.
Prominent
Palestinian political analyst Dr. Fayez Abu Shamaleh said that prior to
the speech, the Palestinian media created the impression that Abbas was
going to drop a bombshell.
“I
followed the Palestinian Authority’s media before Mahmoud Abbas’s
speech,” Abu Shamaleh said. “They were talking about a ‘Day of
Resurrection’ at the General Assembly, about the surprises that the
president would make, about the Israelis who would flee the region, and
about the people waiting in front of the satellite channels to watch
their president. The truth is that 99% of the Palestinian people did not
follow the speech and did not care.”
Palestinian
lawyer Hasan Mezyed said that this was not the first time that Abbas
had directed threats against Israel. Mezyed pointed out that Abbas has
in the past failed to carry out decisions by Palestinian institutions to
halt security coordination with Israel.
Social
media user Raed Abu Jarad contemptuously remarked: “Mahmoud Abbas gives
the occupation a full year to withdraw from the occupied territories,
otherwise the response will be loud: ‘Leave us alone, go away, enough is
enough and our patience is limited.’”
Political
activist Issa Amro described Abbas’s speech as “weak,” saying it does
not represent the aspirations of the Palestinians.
Amro took Abbas to task for failing to label Israel as an “apartheid” state.
Addressing
the president, he said: “What is needed to register your name in
history and end your life in an honorable manner is a real fight against
corruption, reform of the PLO and Fatah and reform of everything you
destroyed.”
Hamas
and other Palestinian factions also criticized Abbas’s speech, but
focused on his claim that he is keen on holding general elections and
that Palestinians enjoy democracy and pluralism.
Hamas
spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum said the speech was a “reproduction of the
failed policies” of the PA and “a clear recognition of Abbas’s inability
to achieve anything through the Oslo Accords.”
Barhoum
dismissed Abbas’s talk about democracy and pluralism as “false.” “The
political arrests, torture and killing of political opponents in the
West Bank are the biggest evidence of the [PA’s] totalitarian regime,”
he said.
The
Al-Ahrar Movement, a network of Hamas-backed Fatah dissidents in the
Gaza Strip, said that Abbas’s speech did not carry anything new, but was
a “continuation of the rhetoric of helplessness and failure.”
Khaled Abu Toameh
Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/palestinians-mock-abbas-ultimatum-to-israel-680283
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