In Abbas’ speech to the UNHRC, the Palestinian leader reiterates previous declaration that the PA will not be bound by the Oslo Accords.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF, JPOST.COM STAFF

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday, saying that Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people have led to the current “explosion” of violence by Palestinian youth and that the time has come for the international community to move from words to actions to stop Israel’s violations of international law.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the special meeting of Human Rights Council at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland October 28. – Photo: REUTERS

Abbas accused Israel of carrying out extrajudicial killings, detaining corpses, terrorizing people, applying collective punishments and carrying out illegal house demolitions.

“Israel acts as a state above the law, undeterred, unpunished and without accountability,” he charged.

“I have warned for years of the consequences of what has been happening in Jerusalem and its surroundings,” he said in reference to the wave of violence against Israel.

Abbas presents his vision of a future Palestinian state.

He accused successive Israeli governments in power since the year 2000 of systematically seeking to change Jerusalem’s historical and demographic character.

Israel is “tightening the noose around the necks of the population by different means in order to drive them out of the holy city. I have warned that the pressure will cause an explosion,” he said.

He accused Israel of trying to alter the status quo on the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem, saying that this threatened to change the conflict from a political one to a religious one.

He called for strong and decisive intervention by the UN and its member states, particularly the UN Security Council.

The Palestinians do not want to continue fruitless negotiations for the sake of negotiations, he said. “The Security Council must shoulder its responsibilities and protect the Palestinian people. We can no longer bear the attacks by the settlers and the Israeli army. Protect us, we need you,” he said.

He reiterated his vow made in his speech last month at the UN General Assembly in New York, that the Palestinians would not continue to be bound unilaterally by the Oslo Accords. “If Israel fails to commit to them, we will also not commit,” he said.

Israel must bear all its responsibilities as an occupying power, the status quo can not continue, he said. “We will start to implement this declaration by all peaceful means,” he said.

Abbas invited the Israeli people to a “rights and justice-based peace.”

Peace is still within reach if the occupation of Palestinian land is ended and settlement expansion is ceased, he said. “The formula is actually very simple.”

Hitler hosts Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini on November 28, 1941, at the Reich Chancellory in Berlin – Photo: Heinrich Hoffmann Collection/Wikipedia

This might be the last chance for the two-state solution, he warned. “After that who knows what the winds of change will bring.” He added that security cannot be obtained through occupation, but only through recognition of the other.

He attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “justifying Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians” with his comments last week in which he said that Palestinian leader Haj Amin al-Husseini had given Adolf Hitler the idea to kill Jews in the Holocaust.

View original The Jerusalem Post publication at:
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Abbas-to-UN-Protect-us-from-Israel-we-need-you-430295