Palestine will not be a “fragmented state” like a “Swiss cheese”. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas solemnly affirmed Tuesday before the UN Security Council to reject the Israeli-American peace plan, which does not bring sovereignty to the Palestinian people.
The plan "challenges the legitimate rights of the Palestinians," he said, holding up a large map of Palestine as desired by the United States.
"We rejected this plan because East Jerusalem would not be part of Palestine and that is enough to refuse it," said Mahmoud Abbas. It would make Palestine "a fragmented state", without air control, without maritime control.
Under the American threat, the Council adopted no resolution. The abandonment of the vote on a resolution Tuesday morning represents a serious setback for the Palestinians, even if they assure that the negotiations on the text started last week will continue. They also explain that they wanted to spare their support for the Security Council, put under very strong pressure from the United States not to approve a resolution. According to a Western diplomat, Washington has threatened to “retaliate”, notably financial, the countries which would position themselves against the United States.
Angry questions cleared beforehand. On Sunday, the United States and the United Kingdom submitted to their partners in the Security Council a series of amendments to the text aimed at removing any criticism of the American peace plan unveiled by Donald Trump on January 28. Among its amendments to the draft resolution, Washington asked to delete the mention of a vision of "two sovereign and democratic states" in order to retain only the qualification of "democratic states"
$ 50 billion in the balance. This project uses a "two-state solution" and proposes to create a capital of a Palestinian state in Abu Dis, a suburb of Jerusalem, while the Palestinians want to make all of East Jerusalem the capital of their state. It integrates an annexation of the Israeli colonies, as well as of the Jordan Valley in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, with borders breaking with the lines drawn at the time. It also provides for a demilitarized state for Palestine altering its sovereignty.
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VIDEO. Trump wants to redraw the borders of Israel and Palestine
According to the American ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, the plan, which comes with an investment of 50 billion dollars, "is realistic and can be implemented". "It is not a project frozen in stone, take it or leave it," she added on Tuesday, referring to "a proposal to start dialogue".
Abbas appeals to the Quartet. "These are our territories," asserted before the Security Council Mahmoud Abbas. "What gives you the right to annex them?" He asked the Israelis, calling on "the international community to put pressure on Israel" to prevent this prospect, which could come after the next Israeli elections in early March. He reiterated that "the United States can no longer be the only mediator" for peace in the Middle East. He called on the "Quartet (United States, Russia, European Union and the United Nations) and the members of the Security Council to organize an international peace conference", without giving further details.
The EU demands "a single, sovereign and viable state". In a joint declaration before the Security Council meeting, the members of the EU sitting in this body (Belgium, France, Germany, Estonia, plus former Poland member) stressed their commitment to reach a two-state solution, including "a single, independent, democratic, single, sovereign and viable state" for the Palestinians.
"Cracks" in supporting the Palestinians. If Abbas can boast of support from the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the African Union, international support has multiple "cracks", according to the term used by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of the American president. In the Arab world, several countries have shown their support for Washington, such as the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Barheïn. According to diplomats, a vote on a Palestinian resolution criticizing the American project would not have won the 14 votes out of 15 who had denounced, in December 2017 at the UN, the unilateral American decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Israel disparages Abbas. According to the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, peace cannot come about if the Palestinians do not change leaders. "It is only after he leaves that Israel and the Palestinians can move forward," he said.
Thousands of protesters in Ramallah. "The theft of the century", "Palestine is not for sale", could be read Tuesday afternoon on placards of demonstrators in the center of Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas. At least 5,000 people gathered in the West Bank town to denounce the American plan again. This is the largest demonstration in the Palestinian Territories in support of Mahmoud Abbas in recent years
In the Gaza Strip enclave, led by Hamas Islamists, some 2,000 people rallied in support of Abbas against the American plan.
