In speech at conference "to refute the Zionist narrative," Abbas claims "Israel is a foreign body in this region… created by Western states for purely colonialist purposes"
Excerpt of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ recorded speech that was played at the beginning of “The Zionist narrative – between refutation and deconstruction” conference
Headline: “The [PA] president: A gradual change has occurred in global opinion on the path to recognition of the Palestinian narrative”
“[PA President Mahmoud Abbas said:] ‘I welcome the efforts that have been made to convene this conference, which is refuting the Zionist narrative that falsifies the truth and history, and which all the documents and research studies prove is the product of colonialism.
They planned, executed, and funded the planting of Israel as a foreign body in this region in order to dismantle it and leave it weak. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the forces of colonialism organized the immigration of the Jews to Palestine following the issuing of the Balfour Declaration (see note below -Ed.), which was drafted by the US and Britain (sic., the US did not draft it), and which they imposed on the British Mandate for Palestine and the Covenant of the League of Nations, until the issuing of [UN] partition resolution 181 of 1947 and their recognition of the State of Israel…
This caused the uprooting of more than half of the original owners of the land, the Palestinians, who currently number more than 6.5 million refugees.
Even though we agreed to a painful historic agreement when we recognized the State of Israel in the 1967 borders according to UN resolutions 242 and 338, and despite the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, Israel has violated these agreements and continued stealing lands, establishing settlements, establishing an apartheid regime, and ethnic cleansing through military force…
The world has begun to see Israel as it truly is, a state of occupation and apartheid. I am certain that the contribution of the researchers and participants in this conference will have an important influence on everything concerning the clarification and explanation of the truth regarding the false myths and stories of this Zionist project, which was created by the Western states for purely colonialist purposes.’”
The Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917 was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that "His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." In 1922, the League of Nations adopted this and made the British Mandate "responsible for putting into effect the declaration," which led to the UN vote in favor of partitioning Mandatory Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state in 1947. In response, Britain ended its mandate on May 15, 1948, and the Palestinian Jews, who accepted the Partition Plan, declared the independent State of Israel. The Palestinian Arabs rejected the plan and together with 7 Arab states attacked Israel, in what is now known as Israel's War of Independence.
UN Resolution 181 (the UN partition plan for Palestine) was passed by the UN General Assembly in 1947. It called for the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem as a separate entity under the rule of a special international body. The Arab state was meant to be comprised of the western Galilee, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, and the remaining territory of the Mandate west of the Jordan River would be the state of Israel - Jordan (known at the time as Transjordan) had already been established in what had been the part of the Mandate that was east of the Jordan River. The resolution was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, but Arab leaders and governments rejected it, and launched a war to destroy Israel.
UN Security Council Resolution 242 – The 1967 Six Day War ended with Israel in control of lands formerly under the control of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. UN Security Council Resolution 242 called for “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict” and stressed all states’ “right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.” It also called for freedom of navigation through international waters, and demanded a just resolution to the refugee problem. At the time, those involved in drafting Resolution 242 said that the wording of the clause intentionally called for Israeli withdrawal "from territories" and not “the territories” or “all territories,” because the borders prior to the war – the 1949–1967 armistice lines – were not “secure” borders. For example, British Ambassador to the UN Lord Caradon, sponsor of Resolution 242, explained: "It was not for us to lay down exactly where the border should be. I know the 1967 border very well. It is not a satisfactory border, it is where troops had to stop in 1947 (sic., 1949), just where they happened to be that night, that is not a permanent boundary." US Secretary of State Dean Rusk said Resolution 242 did not say “all territories” because the region needed "a border sensible for both parties." US President Lyndon B. Johnson also noted that returning to the old borders would be "not a prescription for peace, but for renewed hostilities." Many argue that Israel fully fulfilled this clause to withdraw “from territories” when it withdrew from Sinai in 1982, a full 91% of “territories occupied in the recent conflict." The words “Palestine” or “Palestinian” do not appear anywhere in the resolution.