Story highlights
NEW: Security coordination between PLO and Israel is canceled, PLO official says
NEW: Benjamin Netanyahu's office says Mahmoud Abbas' speech "encourages incitement and lawlessness"
Abbas accuses Israel of "continuously" violating the Oslo Accords
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of not committing to peace agreements known as the Oslo Accords and declared that Palestinians “cannot continue to be bound by these agreements.”
“They leave us no choice but to insist that we will not remain the only ones committed to the implementation of these agreements, while Israel continuously violates them,” Abbas said Wednesday in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly.
Abbas referred to “Palestine” as a “state under occupation.”
“We therefore declare that we cannot continue to be bound by these agreements (Oslo Accords) and that Israel must assume all of its responsibilities as an occupying power, because the status quo cannot continue,” Abbas said.
The consequences of Abbas’ declaration remain unclear, and its practical effects on the relations between Israelis and Palestinians are uncertain, including its effects on security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Whether the implications of Abbas’ speech would play out differently in the West Bank and in Gaza, where the Palestinian Authority’s governing Fatah party has little influence, also remains to be seen.
Hamas, which rules Gaza, called on Abbas to end all agreements with Israel, but a deep divide has thwarted political reconciliation between the two territories, each led by its respective group.
Mustafa Barghouti, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization Central Council, asserted that all forms of security coordination between Palestinians and Israelis have now been canceled.
Palestinians will begin using nonviolent resistance while calling for sanctions against Israel, Barghouti said.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Abbas’ speech “was deceitful and encourages incitement and lawlessness in the Middle East.”
Netanyahu’s office stressed that “Israel is strictly maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount and is committed to continuing to do so in accordance with the agreements,” according to a statement.