In a stirring performance at the United Nations on Monday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas contested the legitimacy of Jewish ties to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif. His claims, delivered with theatrical gusto, came during the 75th Nakba Day commemoration, an event full of historical poignancy for Palestinians.
“Israel went digging everywhere but couldn’t find anything,” Abbas quipped, referring to Israel’s longstanding claim of historical connection to the Temple Mount and Western Wall.
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Abbas also chided the US and the UK for their “colonial goals” during the 1948 war, attributing the displacement of nearly a million Palestinians to their interference. His narrative of victimhood echoed through the UN halls, accusing the two nations of using the Jewish people to fulfill their colonial ambitions.
His speech was a smorgasbord of allegations, from denying Palestinian Muslims’ freedom of worship at Al-Aqsa Mosque to likening Israel’s historical narrative to Nazi propaganda. “They lie just like Goebbels,” he scoffed, alleging that the Zionist claim of making a desert bloom was nothing short of falsehood.
While he advocated for a two-state solution and claimed not to be “against Jews,” Abbas also demanded a right of return to Israel for the Palestinian refugees and their millions of descendants, a move that seems to most observers incompatible with a two-state solution. His sharp-tongued address culminated in a call for the UN to either enforce resolutions on the return of Palestinian refugees or suspend Israel’s membership in the international body.