Israel "intends to erase the Palestinians from Palestine" says Abbas
Official PA TV, broadcast of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ speech at a meeting of Palestinian faction secretary-generals on Sept. 3, 2020
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: “Brothers and sisters, know that beginning in 1917 when they came out against us with the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), which was an American-British product (sic., America was not involved in creating the Balfour Declaration, although it did give its consent to it)- and we must read this statement letter by letter because it has denied [the existence of] the Palestinian people from the beginning, for 102 or 103 years, and it has spoken about the Palestinian people as ‘those who remained’ or those present in this land – they have civil and religious rights.
And to this moment, after more than a century, they say ‘You have civil and religious rights, and you don’t have political rights.’ This is the position that Israel is standing by now, and behind it is the US. From that time this position has continued in ignoring and negating the Palestinian people. They say ‘A land without a people for a people without a land.’ They know very well that the land of Palestine is full of Palestinians, and the rest are a minority that is here and there. But some of them perhaps intended that they must erase the Palestinians from Palestine so that it would become a land without a people for a people without a land. Despite this, we have suffered much in order to strengthen our existence and our entity, and we were unable – unfortunately, due to many conditions that were not hidden from you [that are] local, international, and global – and we were left scattered worldwide, until the PLO appeared. And yet, they still do not recognize us that we are a people, and that this organization represents this people until (sic.) 1964, when we made a decision at the Arab Summit [that the PLO is the sole representative of the Palestinian people]…
True, additional difficulties that we are dealing with derive from these positions [of abrogating the agreements with Israel] – especially on the economic level. The occupation authorities are taking hundreds of billions from our money, which they are collecting in exchange. In other words, for every $100 they take $3. This is theft. They are stealing this money (sic., Israel imposes a 3% processing fee on taxes it collects for the PA according to the Paris Agreement; see note below). And this is due to their control over the border crossings, and we refuse to accept money like this in accordance with the previous agreements, which we have withdrawn from.
The pressures have increased on us and on the Arab states since the beginning of this year [2020], until these states are not standing by their economic commitments to us. We asked for someone to provide us with loans in exchange for our money, and we went to the ends of the earth. In other words, we are asking for loans in exchange for our money from all the world states. But everywhere we went, the American administration says ‘Be careful not to pay them. Put them in a corner until they are ruined’ – we will not be ruined. ‘Until they fall’ – we will not fall, regardless of how much the American pressure increases…
(Abbas holds up a set of maps allegedly depicting the gradual loss of “Palestine,” in a false claim that there ever was such a state –Ed.)
We have read [the deal of the century] (i.e., refers to US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan), it has one word – there is a Palestinian state for the Palestinians after they prove their loyalty in four years. Okay, what is the state? Here is the state, this is the state. This, not this. This is historical Palestine (i.e., all of Israel including the PA areas), and here is the first and second partition plan, and afterwards the 1948 [partition plan] (see note below –Ed.), and only afterwards the state.
Swiss cheese. A small slice that will be connected only via one bridge or one tunnel on the instructions of Israel. Here it is, no borders, no security, no nothing, and they say ‘We brought you a state.’ There are people who believe and say: ‘They brought you a state, where is it?’ Here it is. I challenge anyone in the world that would agree to their state being like this…
By the way, the Palestinian people – do you know how many they are? We are 13 million Palestinians. Here in historical Palestine there are more than 6 million, and the rest are outside of it. A people of 13 million, and everyone is educated. We do not have illiterates among us like there are among others…
We will not repeat the disaster of 1948 when we were removed from our homeland. Whoever remembers like me, whoever is old like me, remembers how we were removed. Enough of the disgraces – and in 1967. This time we will not leave our homeland under any circumstances. We will not leave our land under any circumstances. We are here for better or worse. This is our land, and we will remain in it forever, in order to defend our holy sites – the Muslim and Christian ones – from the occupation’s plots.
We will also continue to work together to achieve national unity and cooperation. I hope that this will happen soon. This is the decision now, so that we will be together in the trench of peaceful popular uprising against the occupation(i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror). We are committed, respectable. Truly we are not acting in terror and chaos and the like. But we want our right, that we will be humans.
This is just our right that people know that these people – how many are we here? – that we are humans. From here I call on you to agree on assembling a national committee that will lead the activity of this uprising. Now the time has come that there be leadership for the uprising, which will define the plans, organizations, conditions, and everything so that it will lead the non-violent popular resistance.”
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.
Paris Agreement – agreement on economic relations between Israel and the PLO, signed in Paris on April 29, 1994. Its main goal is to promote peace by establishing economic relations modeled on EU economic relations.
The Trump peace plan – US President Donald Trump announced his Israel–Palestinian peace plan "Peace to Prosperity" – commonly known as “the deal of the century” - on Jan. 28, 2020. Main points of the plan: 1- Israeli sovereignty would be applied to the Jordan Valley and all Israeli towns and cities in the West Bank. 2- Jerusalem, including all its holy sites, would remain under Israeli sovereignty with accommodations made to enable access for Palestinians. 3- The remainder of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and part of what is currently Israeli land in the Negev, the Galilee, and Jerusalem - creating a territory almost equal in size to the West Bank and Gaza Strip - would form the Palestinian state, with its capital in neighborhoods in East Jerusalem that are outside of Israel's security wall. 4- The Palestinian state would be demilitarized, with Israel responsible for external security and controlling all airspace. 5- All Palestinian prisoners except murderers, and those who attempted or conspired to murder would be released. 6- Palestinians in refugee camps would be absorbed into their host countries and, subject to certain limitations, into the Palestinian state. 7- Before becoming a state, the Palestinians would have to carry out extensive reform of their laws and institutions, including implementing a new governing system; granting its people due process and basic human rights and freedoms; end all incitement to and incentivizing of terror; end all glorification of terror and martyrdom; disarm Hamas; and adopt a culture promoting peace. The goal of the plan is to create a Palestinian state beside Israel, living in peace and security. The implementation would be facilitated through extensive international investment.
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.
The terms "peaceful uprising/resistance,” and “popular uprising/resistance" are used by PA leaders at times to refer to peaceful protest and at times to refer to deadly terror attacks and terror waves. For example, Mahmoud Abbas defined as “peaceful popular” the murderous terror during the 2015-2016 terror wave (“The Knife Intifada”), in which 40 people were killed (36 Israelis, 1 Palestinian, 2 Americans and 1 Eritrean) and hundreds wounded in stabbings, shootings, and car ramming attacks. Abbas said: "We want peaceful popular uprising, and that’s what this is." https://palwatch.org/page/9276