United Nations officials here marked a day of solidarity with the Palestinian people with a speech reminiscent of the anti-Israel rhetoric commonly heard prior to the peace accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Nabil Ramlawi, the PLO representative to U.N. groups meetings here, said Tuesday that Palestinian resistance to the Israelis was similar to the European fight against the Nazis during World War II.
He also spoke out against the self-rule accord signed by Israel and the PLO last year in Washington, saying that the Palestinians will continue to fight Israel until they establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
“The Palestinians will continue to resist occupation by any means necessary,” he said. Last year’s “negotiations between the PLO and Israel were unbalanced and will lead to no peace until the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
The U.N. session here marked the 47th anniversary of the date that the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution partitioning Palestine, paving the way for the creation of the Jewish state.
Meanwhile, a former American Jewish diplomat was refused the opportunity to address the U.N. delegates and voice his support for the ongoing Israeli- Palestinian peace process.
Morris Abram, currently chairman of U.N. Watch, a non-governmental monitoring group, made the request to speak, but was turned down by the International Coordinating Committee for Non-governmental Organizations on the Question of Palestine, which had exclusive control over which speakers would be allowed to speak at Tuesday’s event.
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