Jerusalem—Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas told the Arab League on Tuesday that he rejects “even holding a discussion” over Israel’s long-standing requirement that any comprehensive peace deal must see the Palestinians acknowledging Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, according to a transcript of his speech conveyed in a longer analysis published today by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
Kerry met with Abbas on Wednesday in what Bloomberg described as “a bid to avert a breakdown in his peacemaking efforts as an April 29 deadline nears.” A February meeting between the two had reportedly seen Abbas “explode with rage” at what he termed Kerry’s “insane” proposals.
Earlier in the week, Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who was nonplussed by Abbas’ moves, scrapped plans to visit Abbas for what he had hoped would be a last push for a breakthrough after eight months of talks. Speaking in Brussels, he played down the severity of the breach and stressed that Abbas has said he intends to continue talking. Abbas’s announced on Tuesday he would sign papers that would allow the Palestinians to become a party to 15 U.N. treaties and protocols about the rights of women, children, those with disabilities and civilians in wartime. “
We are not doing this against America, but we still don’t see other ways forward,” Abbas said to the Palestine Liberation Organization. “We don’t see any reason not to go and sign these agreements, with the knowledge that we are on the path to reaching an agreement through talks and through peaceful popular resistance.”
In July 2013, the Palestinians agreed not to join U.N. organizations or sign U.N. treaties in exchange for Israel’s promise to release 104 Palestinian prisoners. The last group of 26 was not released as scheduled, said a spokesman for Abbas, so the Palestinians felt free to sign the documents. The signing also took place on the day the Israelis announced that there was an almost certain deal to release Jonathan Pollard, who was convicted in the U.S. of spying for Israel. In addition, on that day the Israel Land Authority tendered an offer to sell rights to build 708 housing units in Gilo, a community built on land the PA says belongs to them.
Kerry also cautioned that this is taking place in a time fraught with political issues that needed to be considered and said that the talks would not have gotten as far as they have so far, if people were not serious. He also said that negotiators were continuing to meet despite these latest developments.
“This is a moment to be really clear-eyed and sober about this process,” Kerry said. “It is difficult. It is emotional. It requires huge decisions, some of them with great political difficulty, all of which need to come together simultaneously.”
Kerry said. “The leaders on both sides have to make the decisions, not us. It’s up to them to decide what they are going to do with each other, for each other, for the future, for the region, for peace.”
Leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations expressed “concern and disappointment” that Abbas signed the new applications “knowing that this could sabotage the ongoing efforts of the United States Secretary of State John Kerry and Prime Minister Netanyahu to sustain the negotiations.”
“We hope that the applications will not be submitted to the U.N. organizations and the proposals will be properly responded to so that negotiations can be extended through the end of the year to enable the parties to work out the complex issues involved,” said Conference of Presidents Chairman Robert G. Sugarman and Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein.
American Jewish Committee Executive Director David Harris said, “Abbas’s latest ploy endangers the peace process, and is a slap in the face of Secretary of State Kerry, who has worked tirelessly with both Israelis and Palestinians to achieve peace.”
“If the Palestinian leadership wants to keep a two-state prospect viable, internationalizing the conflict at this sensitive moment is totally counter-productive,” Harris said.
