Itongadol.- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dropped his promised bombshell at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday when he threatened to stop abiding by the 1993 Oslo Accords, which have governed the relations between Israel and the Palestinians for over two-decades.
The Palestinian Authority will be a transitional power moving toward independent statehood or Israel must take over full control of the Palestinian people as an occupying power, Abbas said.
The Palestinian leader did not announce the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority or the canceling of security cooperation with Israel as some had speculated he would. It was not clear what the practical implications of his declaration to the General Assembly would be.
Abbas said that he came "to sound the alarm" over "extremist Israeli groups\’ incursions on the al-Aksa Mosque" in Jerusalem.
Speaking as tensions were high on the Temple Mount in recent weeks, Abbas accused Israel of preventing Muslim worshipers from visiting the mosque and exercising their religious rights.
He accused Israel of violating the status quo at the site which is holy to both Jews and Muslims.
"We will not accept this, and the Palestinian people will not allow the implementation of this illegal scheme," he vowed.
Abbas said that it was "unconscionable" that the Palestinian issue should remain unresolved all these years.
The status quo pushed forward by the Israeli government cannot continue, he said.
He quoted former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin as saying that Israel would become an apartheid state if the occupation of the Palestinian territories were to continue and saying that the settlement enterprise is a cancer.
Abbas referenced the firebomb attack in the West Bank village of Duma purportedly carried out by Jewish extremists that claimed the life of infant Ali Dawabshe. "Where is justice, where is justice, where is democracy?" he asked.
"Is it not time to end this injustice? Is it not time to stop this suffering? Is it not time for the racist annexation wall to be dismantled?" he asked. "Is it not time to end the racist, terrorist, colonial settlement of our land, which is destroying the two-State solution?"
Abbas praised those countries that had recognized the State of Palestine and called on those who had not yet done so, to change course.
The Palestinian president slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government for undermining US efforts to mediate a peace deal. "We have tried to oblige Israel to implement the signed agreements and to negotiate in conformity with the two-State solution," he said. "However, the Israeli Government insists on continuing its destruction of the two-State solution and on entrenchment of two regimes on the ground: an apartheid regime that is currently imposed on the territory of the State of Palestine," he added.
He said that Israel had stopped the withdrawal of its forces as stipulated in the Oslo Accords, instead increasing settlement activity. Abbas said that given Israel\’s violations of the Oslo Accords, the Palestinians could not remain the only party honoring the agreement.
"As long as Israel refuses to commit to the agreements signed with us, which render us an authority without real powers, and as long as Israel refuses to cease settlement activities and to release of the fourth group of Palestinian prisoners in accordance with our agreements, they leave us no choice but to insist that we will not remain the only ones committed to the implementation of these agreements, while Israel continuously violates them," Abbas said.
"We cannot continue to be bound by these signed agreements with Israel and Israel must assume fully its responsibilities of an occupying power, because the status quo cannot continue," he said.
"We will start the implementation of this declaration by all peaceful and legal means. Either the Palestinian National Authority will be the conduit of the Palestinian people from occupation to independence, or Israel, the occupying Power, must bear all of its responsibilities," Abbas said.
"I say to our neighbors, the Israeli people that peace is in your interest, in our interest, and in the interest of our future generations. Narrow vision is destructive. I hope that you will consider the dangerous reality on the ground and look to the future and accept for the Palestinian people what you accept for yourselves," he added.