Abbas: We will not retreat from demanding our rights

The Palestinian people and their leadership will not back down from the rights they have always demanded, President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday.

During a speech in Bethlehem, Abbas stressed that the Palestinian Authority will remain and no one can dream that it be dissolved.

He pointed out that the Palestinians have accepted the solution presented by the international community. Addressing the Israeli side, he asked: “What do you want?”

“The struggle is turning into a religious struggle,” he said, adding that Al-Aqsa Mosque should be saved from it.

He said Palestinians support a peaceful solution to the conflict and criticised Israeli violence towards peaceful demonstrations.

Abbas called for national unity, saying that the PA will not give up its attempt to restore national unity for the sake of the Palestinian people, adding that the PA is keen to build a partnership with Hamas.

He asserted that the PA is continuing with its efforts to bring its case in the UN Security Council so as to demand protection for the Palestinian people and an end to Israeli settlement expansion on Palestinian land, stressing that negotiations with Israel depend on the latter halting “illegal” settlement activity.

Abbas said that the Palestinian people will not leave their land and reiterated the Palestinian people’s demand for “an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital”, in the context of the “two state solution”.