Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a speech on Tuesday morning that the Palestinian Authority (PA) would be ready to host thousands of refugees that have been displaced by violence in Syria and across the region, were it not for Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory.
In a speech at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, regarding the humanitarian situation in Palestine, Abbas maintained that the Palestinian people “will not accept to continue living under an occupation that despises their freedom, humanity, dignity, and basic rights.”
"Israel" is next door to Syria and illegally occupies a huge portion of Syrian land, but it rejects Syrian refugees. https://t.co/JgxD4h1gLp
— Maurice Pinay (@MauricePinay) May 24, 2016
The Palestinian president also reiterated that the PA would continue to support the French initiative to organize an international peace summit to address the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his own rejection of the same initiative.
All past efforts towards peace negotiations have failed to end the decades-long Israeli military occupation or bring Palestinians closer to an independent contiguous state.
(MA’AN, PC)
But he co-operates with them – and for 68 years Palestinians have been denied their inalienable right to return. He must know that. Surely