Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterates bid to seek full UN membership
Mahmoud Abbas was addressing the Arab League conference on Jerusalem in Cairo, Egypt. He also appealed to the world community to “put a stop to the Israeli aggression and unilateral actions”
The Arab League summit in Cairo. Photo: Wafa
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has announced that Palestine will seek full membership at the UN in the coming days. He made this announcement at the Arab League conference on Jerusalem in Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday, February 12. Abbas also sought support from other Arab and Islamic nations against the increasing “lethal assaults” against Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Abbas addressed the gathering along with the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordanian king Abdullah II, as well as the representatives of other Arab countries. He asked Arab nations to support the cause of Al-Quds (the Arabic name for Jerusalem), calling it a “religious duty and vital at the humanitarian and national levels.”
The conference was organized as a follow-up to the Arab League summit in November last year in Algiers, where it was decided that steps needed to be taken to “support and strengthen the steadfastness of the Palestinian people of Jerusalem as the first line of defense for the occupied city on behalf of the Arab and Islamic nations,” Wafa reported.
Abbas, speaking about the escalation in Israeli violence in the occupied territories, appealed to the world community to “put a stop to the Israeli aggression and unilateral actions.”
He also underlined that Palestine would “go to the United Nations and its various bodies to demand a resolution protecting the two-state solution by granting Palestine full membership.”
Diab Allouh, Palestinian ambassador to Cairo and Palestine’s representative to the Arab League, had claimed a day earlier that the conference was being held with the objective of “countering the practices of Israeli occupation forces in light of the recent violent and ferocious attacks on Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian sanctities and amid rise in the Israeli attempts to Judaise the holy city.”
Israel’s fresh assaults in occupied territories
Israel’s violence against Palestinians in the occupied territories has continued. On Monday, February 13, its air forces bombed the besieged Gaza strip in the pre-dawn hours. Though there have been no reports of casualties yet, the attack caused massive material damage in central Gaza.
Israeli forces claimed that the air strike was carried out in response to a rocket fired from Gaza. They also claimed that the attack targeted an “underground Hamas facility.” Israeli tanks also fired artillery into the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian resistance group Hamas issued a condemnation of such raids, claiming that, “the Zionist bombardment of Gaza [has] coincided with acts of aggression against Nablus and al-Quds, confirming that we are facing a campaign of hostilities against our entire nation.”
Israel’s ultra right-wing government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, also decided on Monday to legalize at least nine illegal settlers’ outposts in the occupied West Bank. Netanyahu announced that there will be more illegal settlements constructed in the occupied territories as well.
Israel’s interior ministry, headed by extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, also issued orders to place more restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and to demolish houses of those Palestinians allegedly involved in attacks against Israeli settlers in the region.
Netanyahu claimed that the new punitive measures, including the recognition of illegal outposts, were in “response” to attacks on settlers. On Friday, a Palestinian car rammed settlers, killing two. Israel has termed this a “terrorist” attack. Last month, at least seven Israelis were also killed in a mass shooting in occupied East Jerusalem, a day after Israeli forces had killed nine Palestinians in Jenin.
Meanwhile, on Monday, a Palestinian was killed by Israeli occupation forces in Nablus. Ameer al-Bustami (21) was killed and at least five other Palestinians were reportedly injured when Israeli forces surrounded a civilian building in Sufian street and opened fire at it, Ahmad Jibri, of the Palestinian Red Crescent, told Wafa News Agency.
On Sunday, a 14-year-old child, Qusai Radwan Waked, was killed during a similar Israeli military raid in Jenin, Wafa reported.
Israeli forces have killed 48 Palestinians already this year, in numerous raids all across the occupied West Bank. The UN had declared last year to be the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2005, as Israeli forces killed more than 160 Palestinians.
