Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday reiterated his opposition to recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, and also referred to the current terror wave as a “legitimate peaceful protest”.
He made the comments at the start of a meeting of the Revolutionary Council of his Fatah organization, attended by members of the Fatah Central Committee.
In his speech at the meeting, Abbas once again expressed his support for the French political initiative which seeks to convene an international peace conference.
France, which announced the peace conference initiative in January, has threatened to unilaterally recognize the “State of Palestine” if the initiative fails.
Abbas said that there is a need to convene an international peace conference in order to end the current deadlock in the peace process, and also said that the Palestinians intend to appeal to the UN Security Council in order to have resolutions passed calling for the "end of the settlements in all the Palestinian territories."
Abbas called the current terror wave, which Palestinian Arabs have referred to as the “Al-Quds Intifada”, as a "popular peaceful uprising” which, he claimed, was initiated in response to the behavior of the "occupation", Israel's non-commitment to implement signed agreements, damage to the holy places of Islam and Christianity, arrests, house demolitions, killing of Palestinians, expulsions, closures on Palestinian Arab towns and the “siege” on Gaza .
He further declared that the Palestinians will not comply with the agreements as long as Israel does not implement them, adding that the PA is awaiting Israel's response to its demands and will act accordingly. He also once again expressed his strong opposition to recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.
Abbas has consistently refused to condemn the terrorist attacks carried out by his own people against Israelis, claiming they are the result of Palestinian “frustration”.