Palestine president addresses UN, slams Trump's Quds policy, racist Israeli law

Palestine's president has taken the podium at the UN to harshly condemn the US administration's policy shift on Jerusalem al-Quds, saying there will be no peace with Israel without the eastern part of the occupied city as the capital of the future Palestinian state.

Mahmoud Abbas opened his speech to the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly with the sentence "Jerusalem (al-Quds) is not for sale," drawing the applause of the audience.

The Palestinian leader slammed the US's growing pro-Israel bias under President Donald Trump, which has seen Washington recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as the "capital" of Israel, cut aid to Palestinians and close the diplomatic office of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on US soil.

"With all of these decisions, this administration has reneged on all previous US commitments and has undermined the two-state solution," Abbas said, adding, "I renew my call to President Trump to rescind his decisions and decrees regarding Jerusalem, refugees and settlements."

Trump's action, he added, has "shocked" the Palestinian nation, stressing that no peace will come about with Israel as long as the regime fails to end its occupation of East Jerusalem al-Quds, which the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state.

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The Trump administration waged a diplomatic war against Palestine in December 2017, when it first announced that the US would recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as the "capital" of Israel.

Months later, Washington moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city in defiance of international criticisms.

The move angered Palestinians, who said they would no longer accept Washington's mediation role in their conflict with Israel.

The Trump administration has also cut aid to Palestinians and slashed its contributions to UNRWA – the UN agency that supports more than five million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.

Trump also closed the Palestinian Liberation Organization's office in Washington last month.

Abbas further said there will be no peace without "an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem (al-Quds) as its capital, and not some place in East Jerusalem (al-Quds) as its capital, and with all of its holy sites."

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The Palestinian president also stressed that Palestinians will not recognize Israel unless the entity recognizes the Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.

He once again rejected the US as the sole mediator in any future Israeli-Palestinian talks, stressing that Washington can play a part in the so-called peace process in the format of the Quartet on the Middle East -- the EU, Russia, UN and the US itself.

"We will not accept sole American mediation in the peace process because the US has lost its eligibility -- they are too biased toward Israel," he stated.

'Israel's racist law crossed all red lines'

Elsewhere in his speech, the Palestinian president blasted Israel for adopting the so-called "Jewish nation-state" law, saying the racist law "legalizes discrimination" against the Arab population in Israel.

The law, he added, "crossed all the red line," and will lead to a single "racist, apartheid state."

The president called on the world body to act as it did in the case of the apartheid regime in South Africa and reject the discriminatory Israeli law.

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