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Roundup: Palestinians have mixed reactions to Abbas UN speech

Xinhua, October 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

Parties of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) welcomed the speech of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations on Wednesday, while Hamas and Islamic Jihad asked Abbas to implement his remarks.

Abbas said in his speech at the UN General Assembly that Israel should assume its responsibilities as an occupation power, explaining that Palestinians wouldn't abide by the signed agreements if Israel keeps ignoring them, vowing to pursue this by "peaceful and legal means."

Member of the PLO executive committee Ahmed Majdalani described the speech as "historic."

He explained that the speech has several key points, "the first and most important is that the United States' bias towards Israel makes its ineligible to broker the peace process," Majdalani said.

Majdalani said Abbas held the Israeli government accountable for all the criminal acts as well as blocking the horizon for the peace process.

Jameel Mezher, a Gaza-based leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), told Xinhua that Abbas' speech was positive.

He said he hoped the decision would be implemented, saying that people want actions and not only words.

Mezher urged Abbas to pursue his call and invite the PLO's temporary leadership framework to meet and end the Palestinian split on the basis of an unified strategy for the confrontation with Israel.

The PFLP leader stressed the need to exit "the futile negotiations" and called for an international conference to implement the decisions of international legitimacy.

Meanwhile, the Islamic movement of Hamas said that judging Abbas' remarks is subject to their implementation.

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri told Xinhua that Abbas' speech was "emotional," asking Abbas to stop betting on the peace process and take measures to rearrange the Palestinian home through a national strategy in the face of the Israeli crimes and to protect al-Aqsa mosque.

Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas leader, argued what Abbas said was just "waving a threat only in front of the United Nations that may achieve some support for himself only and not for the Palestinian people."

In a statement, he accused Abbas of "contradicting himself, where on the one hand he called for forming an unity government and on the other he was talking about the peace with Israel."

Islamic Jihad leader Khaled Al-Batsh called upon Abbas to officially announce the end of the Oslo agreement signed in 1993 between Israel and the PLO, and focus on internal unity.

In his remarks to Xinhua, Al-Batsh urged Abbas to stop betting on the international community's promises in regards to reviving the peace process.

Peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel had been frozen since April 2014, after nine months of U.S.-brokered talks couldn't reach consensus on solving the decade-long conflict. Endit