Abbas: Palestinians Will Never Recognize Israel as Jewish State
Image by Getty Images
The Palestinians will never recognize Israel as a “Jewish State,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas asserted.
Abbas told the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Council during a meeting Saturday that the PLO recognized Israel as a state in 1993 and should not have to accept its religious identity, the French news agency AFP reported. He added that neither Egypt nor Jordan was required to recognize Israel’s Jewish character when they signed peace treaties with Israel.
The PLO meeting was called to discuss its next steps in the wake of Israel’s decision to suspend its participation in U.S.-backed peace talks, which are scheduled to end on April 29.
Abbas also said that the new unity government set to be formed between Abbas’ Fatah Party, which rules the West Bank, and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and is considered by the U.S. and Israel to be a terrorist organization, will recognize Israel and renounce violence and terrorism, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported.
He said he is willing to extend peace talks with Israel if Israel institutes a settlement construction freeze in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, frees Palestinian prisoners and sets borders for a future Palestinian state. He also said he would not sign a peace treaty that does not include eastern Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
