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'Shame on you', Abbas rebukes Trump

January 15, 2018
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday. — AFP
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday. — AFP



RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas railed at US President Donald Trump in a fiery, two-hour-long speech on Sunday, saying "shame on you" for his treatment of the Palestinians and warning that he would have no problem rejecting what he suggested would be an unacceptable peace plan.

The speech by Mahmoud Abbas ratcheted up what has been more than a month of harsh rhetoric toward Trump since the president's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Relations between Washington and the Palestinians have sunk to a new low, boding poorly for a peace plan the White House has promised to present.

Speaking to the Palestinian Central Council, a decision-making body, Abbas repeated the Palestinians' opposition to Trump's Jerusalem recognition and censured Trump for accusing the Palestinians of refusing to negotiate.

"He (Trump) said in a tweet: 'We won't give money to the Palestinians because they rejected the negotiations,'" Abbas said. "Shame on you. When did we reject the talks? Where is the negotiation that we rejected?"

Trump infuriated Palestinians and Muslims around the world when he announced late last year that the US would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy there, upending decades of US policy and countering an international consensus that the fate of Jerusalem should be decided in negotiations between the sides.

Abbas has said that by siding with the Israelis on a sensitive issue, the announcement had destroyed Trump's credibility as a Mideast peace broker.

"We can say no to anyone if things are related to our fate and our people, and now we have said no to Trump," he said. "We told him the deal of the century was the slap of the century. But we will slap back."

Abbas also said that the Palestinians have rejected a US request to halt payments to roughly 35,000 families of Palestinians killed and wounded in the conflict with Israel, including suicide bombers and other militants. Israel argues that the practice encourages violence.

Hoping to secure what he has called the "ultimate" deal, Trump has for nearly a year dispatched his Mideast team, led by his adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, to the region to try to breathe life into moribund peace talks, which collapsed in 2014.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed Trump's tough line toward the Palestinians, while also pushing forward with more settlement construction on lands sought by the Palestinians.

Abbas said the Palestinians will not accept the US as a sole broker, and believe a deal can only be reached if there are multiple parties, such as with the international nuclear deal between six global powers and Iran.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Monday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had "lost his senses" following his fiery speech against President Donald Trump.

Lieberman told Israel's Army Radio that Abbas' address symbolized his giving up on the prospect of peace negotiations and opting instead for a confrontation with both Israel and the United States.

Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the pro-settler Jewish Home Party, said the content and style of the speech represented Abbas' swan song.

"Abu Mazen is at the end of his road, toward the end of his rule and the end of his life," he told Army Radio, referring to Abbas by his nickname. "There appears to be no Palestinian partner and it is unlikely there will be." — Agencies


January 15, 2018
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