Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud AbbasYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu blasted Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas Monday evening, following comments by the PA leader Sunday evening at a meeting of Palestine Liberation Organization leaders in Ramallah.

Abbas opened the two-day meeting in Ramallah, slamming President Donald Trump during his address, as well as demanding the UK renounce the 1917 Balfour Declaration, and condemning the State of Israel as a “colonial” project by Europe intended to maintain European control over the Middle East.

“Israel is a colonial project with no connection whatsoever to the Jews,” claimed Abbas.

The PA chairman called President Trump’s December 6th recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital a “slap in the face” to the PA, warning that the PA “will slap back”.

“We won’t take orders from anyone,” said Abbas. “We told Trump we will never accept his [peace] plan. His ‘deal of the century’ is the slap in the face of the century, and we will not accept it.”

“I saw his tweet which said that ‘We will not give aid to the Palestinians because they refuse to relaunch negotiations’,” Abbas continued, cursing the president in Arabic, “May your house be destroyed.”

Abbas also claimed that the Oslo Accords, which established the PA and have served as the basis of Israel’s relationship with the PA for a quarter century, had been terminated by Israel.

"I am saying that Oslo, there is no Oslo," said Abbas. "Israel ended Oslo."

On Monday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a video message in Hebrew responding to Abbas’ address, saying that the PA leader had revealed his true colors, and exposed his fundamental opposition to Jewish statehood, which he called the “root of the conflict”.

"I heard what Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] said. He has revealed the truth. He has torn off the mask and shown to the public the simple truth that I have been working to instill for many long years: The root of the conflict between us and the Palestinians is their steadfast refusal to recognize the Jewish state in any borders whatsoever."

Earlier on Monday, President Reuven Rivlin also condemned Abbas, telling a delegation of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Board of Directors that the PA leader had rejected the Jewish return to its historic homeland.

“What we heard yesterday from Mahmoud Abbas was terrible. He returned to ideas he expressed decades ago, when they were no less terrible. To say Israel is the result of a Western conspiracy to settle Jews in land belonging to Arab populations? To say that that the Jewish people has no connection to the land of Israel?”

“He forgot to mention a good many things, and said exactly the things that led him to be accused years ago of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

“These are precisely the things that block us. In his words, he is rejecting our return to our homeland, even though Abbas knows very well that the Quran itself recognizes the land of Israel as our land. Without this basic recognition, we will not be able to build trust and move forward.”