UNITED NATIONS – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked the United Nations to lay down a timetable for ending the Israeli occupation of lands his people claim for a future state.
Abbas accused Israel of perpetrating a “new war of genocide” against his people in Gaza and undermining the U.S.-backed peace talks that collapsed in April. “There is no value in negotiations which are not linked to a firm timetable” for achieving a Palestinian state, he told the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Friday. He said diplomacy can’t “simply return to the past patterns of work, which repeatedly failed.”
An official in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Abbas’ speech was incendiary and full of lies, declining to be identified because he’s not authorized to comment publicly.
The Palestinian leader is seeking to increase global pressure on Israel to negotiate an end to the conflict. Less than two years ago, the General Assembly voted to recognize a de facto state of Palestine in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. Since then, the U.S.-backed peace talks have broken down and a 50-day conflict in Gaza left more than 2,100 Palestinians and 70 Israelis dead.
While the Palestinian leader didn’t give details Friday, aides have said his new plan envisons negotiations with Israel for nine months and an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and east Jerusalem within three years. The first three months of the negotiations would focus on determining borders, with other core issues to follow.
Abbas said he’ll also seek backing for a timetable at the Security Council, where he may face a veto from the United States, which has repeatedly blocked resolutions opposed by its ally Israel.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war. It evacuated Gaza in 2005 while maintaining control of their shared border and blockading the enclave.
Israeli leaders say the Palestinian demand for a withdrawal to pre-1967 lines is unacceptable because it leaves Israel with indefensible frontiers. Since the 1967 war, Israel has built homes for more than half a million settlers in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, where they live among more than 2.5 million Palestinians. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1967 in a move that isn’t internationally recognized.
Netanyahu is due to speak at the U.N. and visit President Barack Obama at the White House next week.
Secretary of State John Kerry led almost nine months of diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to decades of conflict and the establishment of a Palestinian state. After they broke down in April, Abbas moved to end a seven-year rift with Hamas militants in Gaza and establish a joint government.
Earlier this week, Abbas and Hamas agreed to implement their reconciliation deal on a limited basis in order to facilitate the rebuilding of Gaza. The U.S., European Union and Israel regard Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Abbas didn’t mention a Palestinian plan to apply to the International Criminal Court in order to press war crimes charges against Israel. He made do with saying, “We will not forget and will not forgive, and we will not allow war criminals to escape punishment.”
The U.N. Human Rights Council has set up a panel to investigate possible war crimes by Israeli forces and Palestinian militants during the Gaza war in July and August. Israel, which opposed the UN move, has started its own inquiry into actions by its soldiers.
