Abbas insists Jerusalem must be divided

Abbas: Palestinians Will Never Give Up on Jerusalem

http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=22561

RAMALLAH, June 5, 2013 (WAFA – PLO news service) – President Mahmoud Abbas
said Wednesday that the Palestinian people will never give up their right to
Jerusalem as the capital of their state in spite of all the Israeli measures
intended to alter the character of the occupied city.

Abbas was speaking at the fourth annual conference on Jerusalem, which is
held in Ramallah on the occasion of the Muslim holiday, al-Isra wa al-Miraj,
the miraculous trip of Prophet Muhammad who travelled on his horse,
al-Buraq, from Mecca to Jerusalem, and from there he ascended to heaven and
back.

“This time 46 years ago, Jerusalem came under Israeli occupation,” said
Abbas. “Israel started a process to change the geographic and demographic
character of the holy city through the demolition of homes of Jerusalem
residents, their systematic removal from their city and preventing them from
building homes or their economy while building settlements and falsifying
facts, names and characters.”

He said that Israel’s goal was to isolate the city from its Palestinian
surroundings and empty it or reduce its Palestinian residents to create an
Israeli majority in the city, describing this policy as “a blatant violation
of international law and denial of Palestinian rights.”

He said that this Israeli policy is a reflection of an approach that is
against peace and supports settlements, occupation and expansion.

Abbas said that in spite of all these years of occupation and Israeli
policies, they did not affect the Palestinian people’s determination to keep
Jerusalem as their eternal capital nor affected their will to fight or
remain steadfast.

“There will be no peace without Jerusalem, no state without Jerusalem and no
stability without Jerusalem,” he said, stressing that protecting and
defending Jerusalem is not a Palestinian responsibility only, but also an
Arab and Islamic one.

Abbas said that even though 65 years have passed since the “nakba” and 46
years since the Israeli occupation of the remainder of Palestine, “the
Palestinian people have risen from under the ruins of the nakba and the
remains of the defeat to redraw their political and historical map.”

He said that after becoming a non-member state in the United Nations and
full member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), efforts will now be exerted on joining all UN
organizations.

“These steps will be followed by others until we achieve our legitimate
right to become full members in all the international organizations and
establish our sovereign Palestinian state on all the occupied territory with
Jerusalem as its capital so that we will put an end to the historical
injustice against our people,” he said.

He also rejected a one-sided peace with Israel, which he described as
surrender.

“One-sided peace is not real peace. It is surrender, which we will not
accept or want,” he said.

Abbas saluted the prisoners whom he promised there will not be peace without
their release from Israeli jails and called on Hamas to move forward on
reconciliation through agreeing to elections.

M.S.