Abbas contradicts himself claiming both that he wants to establish a peaceful "two-state solution" but that only Palestinians belong in Jerusalem
Excerpt from Abbas’ speech at the World Economic Forum in Jordan:
“Palestine has a spiritual and religious status and an extraordinary geographic location. This is the land of the three monotheistic religions, the land of peace, to which hundreds of millions of people turn…
In a few days, 46 years of the occupation of the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip will have passed. After 20 years of negotiations, the Israeli government still misleads, procrastinates and evades the demands of peace. Nonetheless, we still say that we want a comprehensive and just peace and want to reach the two-state solution, to reside peacefully side-by-side, in accordance with the legitimate international resolutions, the Road Map and the Arab Peace Initiative. Everyone knows that we have fulfilled all our obligations in accordance with the signed treaties, that we have clarified our positions and intentions and that we have done everything required of us….
I am sending a message from here to our Israeli neighbors – ending the occupation of our land, releasing the prisoners, withdrawing the settlers and settlements, and dismantling the racist separation fence are what will establish peace and ensure security for you and for us. There is still a chance to make this peace, so let’s turn this peace into reality, so that our present and future generations can enjoy its fruits and live in its shade.”
“Secretary General of the Presidential Office, Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim said that by isolating Jerusalem, enclosing it with the fence and building settlements, and [with] the evil intentions to implement the E1 plan, Israel seeks to destroy the whole peace process. He said that it [Israel] is deluded if it thinks that it will extinguish its [Jerusalem’s] flame and erase its cultural identity in this way.
In a speech made yesterday evening [April 2, 2013] representing President Mahmoud Abbas at the opening ceremony of the ‘Jerusalem, Eternal City of Arab Culture’ events, Abd Al-Rahim added…that Jerusalem is not just a capital made of buildings and stones but is an inseparable part of the faith and the fundamental expression of Palestinian national identity. He said it is a holy trinity of man, stones and heaven…
Excerpt from the speech:
‘Declaring Jerusalem as an eternal capital of culture provides a strengthening of, and a natural, cultural and historical way of emphasizing the cultural situation in the holy city…This obligates us to redouble the efforts made to preserve the city’s Muslim-Christian Arab identity and culture. [These efforts] are still less than necessary in view of the ethnic-cleansing settlement attack that reinforces the [Israeli] tyranny of power, capital and media…
The harm done to Jerusalem‘s historical and cultural identity has received an additional and deeper dimension: The falsification of the city’s religious heritage and the attempt to blur and erase it by forcing it to conform to their [the Jews’] myths, claims and false fables. It has now become imperative to highlight Jerusalem’s cultural aspect and ascribe to it the weight it deserves, in addition to the political message, because culture is a spiritual and essential link between us and Jerusalem. We know how the Israeli authorities enlist intellectuals from different fields; artists, historians and academicians and host them each year so that they will write and compose stories and tales about their dreams of the holy city, for the purpose of molding their imaginary narrative and spreading their claim which is disproved by reality…
In the name of Jerusalem, its residents and his Excellency the President, I salute you and thank you and welcome your efforts once more for opening these events. We declare from here, from this place overlooking our Jerusalem, that Jerusalem will remain Palestinian-Arab. We will protect its identity with our lives and blood. These occupiers – besieging it now – must learn their lesson from the invaders who preceded them, for Jerusalem knew us before it knew those invaders. Know that while you learned to love it by force through fables, we nursed our love of it with our mothers’ milk. You will recognize the truth just as did the invaders who preceded you, for we hold the right, Jerusalem is ours and we will restore its eternal splendor among us, as it has been throughout history.’”
Note:
E1 is the Israeli administrative name for the stretch of land northeast of Jerusalem reaching to the west of Ma'ale Adumim.