RAMALLAH, Monday, November 29, 2021 – President Mahmoud Abbas warned today that Israel’s continued undermining of the two-state solution and the entrenchment of its apartheid system will force the Palestinian leadership to pursue alternative options.

“We reiterate our absolute rejection of the continuation of the Israeli occupation of the land of the State of Palestine, and of the racial discrimination and ethnic cleansing practiced against our people. We also affirm our refusal to alter the historical status quo at Al-Aqsa Mosque, to prevent worshippers from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, to expel Palestinians from Jerusalem’s neighborhoods, or to designate six Palestinian civil society organizations as ‘terrorist’,” President Abbas said in a televised address to the conference “Self-Liberation of the Palestinians: Producing Resistance Knowledge.”

“At the same time, we remain committed to achieving a just and comprehensive peace in accordance with the two-state solution and the resolutions of international legitimacy, under the auspices of the International Quartet. However, if the occupying state continues to undermine the two-state solution and impose an apartheid reality, we will be forced to consider other options. Important decisions will be discussed at the upcoming meeting of the PLO Central Council early next year,” he continued.

“We will not accept the reality of apartheid practiced by the occupation authorities, nor their oppression of our people through land seizures, confiscation of natural resources, strangulation of our economy, assaults on the identity and character of Jerusalem and its holy Christian and Islamic sites, and the expulsion of its residents. Nor will we accept home demolitions, killings, the suppression of prisoners, the withholding of martyrs’ bodies, or the unjust blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip. These crimes will be confronted, and we will prevail through the resilience of our people and their steadfastness on their land,” he stressed.

On the internal front, President Abbas affirmed the leadership’s commitment to the unity of the Palestinian land and people, and to the formation of a national unity government in which all participating factions abide by international legitimacy. He emphasized the need to strengthen democratic foundations through holding general elections in all Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.

President Abbas called on the international community to pressure Israel to abide by signed agreements and to allow elections to be held in occupied East Jerusalem, as was the case in previous electoral rounds.