Roundup: Palestinians mark 49th anniversary of Israeli occupation, press for statehood

The Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip are marking the 49th anniversary of the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian and Arab territories in 1967.

After 49 years, the Palestinians will not accept less than the end of the Israeli occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a speech carried by the Palestinian state-run news agency.

On June 4, 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights of Syria and parts of the Egyptian Peninsula of Sinai. It pulled out from Sinai following 1978 peace treaty signed in Camp David with Egypt and unilaterally pulled out from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

However, it kept occupying large areas of the West Bank, all East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights of Syria.

Abbas added the Palestinians want to establish an independent Palestinian state on the territories Israel occupied in 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital.

"Our people, who provided large sacrifices over the past five decades to reach their main goal will never accept a reality that Israel has been always trying to forcibly impose, especially on Jerusalem and on our holy Islamic and Christian sites," he said.

The Palestinians sticks to the two-state solution based on reaching a permanent peace agreement with Israel, Abbas added, stressing that the Palestinian people are united around this goal.

However, Hamas strongman Mahmoud al-Zahar said in an earlier statement that the Palestinian people believe that resuming the negotiations with Israel to reach a peace agreement "is waste of time," and that the two-state solution is not practical.

Hamas is against the peace process with Israel and against the recognition of the Jewish state. The Islamic movement has been ruling the Gaza Strip since it violently took control of the coastal enclave in the summer of 2007.

It says Israel pulled out from Gaza due to armed resistance and not due to peace treaties.

In an interview with a pro-Hamas radio station based in Gaza, Al-Zahar slammed a French initiative on peace in the Middle East, saying it aims to waste another 20 years of negotiations. However, President Abbas said the French efforts will lead to a just and comprehensive peace in the region.

France has been exerting efforts to bring the stalled Middle East peace process back on track. On Friday, a large ministerial meeting held in Paris with the participation of around 20 foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, to prepare for an international conference for peace in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister of the Palestinian consensus government Rami Hamdallah slammed Israel for keeping East Jerusalem isolated from the entire Palestinian territories.

He warned that this isolation "would widely open the door for endless violence in the region."

"Israel has never stopped its daily aggression on Al-Aqsa Mosque and East Jerusalem," Hamdallah said in an official statement, adding that "the region won't enjoy peace and stability as long as East Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state is still occupied."

Hamdallah also stressed that there is no one single Palestinian that accepts an independent Palestinian state without East Jerusalem as its capital, adding that the Israeli celebrations to mark the military occupation of East Jerusalem "will never hide the truth that this part of the Palestinian territories is till occupied."

After Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the entire Palestinian and Arab territories in 1967, it announced in 1968 that it annexed East Jerusalem and considered the whole city undivided and it is the eternal capital of the state of Israel, while the Palestinians say East Jerusalem is the capital of their future state. Endit