(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Amb. Alan Baker - PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' statement to the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2021, was almost identical to Yasser Arafat's statement at the 2001 Durban Conference. Citing the Nakba (catastrophe), Abbas deliberately inverted history and ignored decades of organized violence by Arab groups and forces against Jewish communities, including massacres of Jews in 1920, 1921, 1929, 1936, and 1938, all aimed at terrorizing the Jewish residents and removing any Jewish presence from the area. Abbas misled the General Assembly into believing that General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) created a "right of return" for Palestinians. The truth is that the resolution was a non-obligatory recommendation and did not create legal rights. In violation of UN resolutions and international conventions criminalizing the financing of terror, Abbas blatantly and unabashedly defended and justified the PA's "pay to slay" policy that provides salaries to prisoners guilty of acts of terror and murder, knowing that such payments serve as incentives and encouragement for more acts of terror. The writer, a former legal adviser to the Israel Foreign Ministry who participated in the negotiation and drafting of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, heads the International Law Program at the Jerusalem Center.
2021-10-07 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive