Alwaght- Palestine will never allow the US to sell al-Quds (Jerusalem) to the Israeli regime, President Mahmoud Abbas said, reiterating that the occupied city is the eternal capital of the future Palestinian state.
Al-Quds “is not for sale,” Abbas said in a speech marking the 54th anniversary of the Fatah party’s founding in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday.
“We will not allow anyone to advance a plot against al-Quds,” he noted, stressing that the city “will remain the eternal capital of the Palestinian state, as the late President Yasser Arafat said that a Palestinian child will raise the flag of Palestine on the walls, minarets and churches of al-Quds.”
Tel Israeli regime lays claim to the whole al-Quds, but the international community views the city’s eastern sector as occupied territory.
Israel occupied East al-Quds during the Six-Day War in 1967 and later annexed the city in a move not recognized by the international community.
US President Donald Trump sparked anger among Palestinians and the entire international community in December 2017, when he recognized al-Quds as the Israeli "capital".
Washington also moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied city months later in defiance of global warnings.
Abbas said that the embassy relocation would fail to undermine the right of Palestinians to Jerusalem al-Quds and would not cause them to give up their principles.
He also emphasized that the Palestinian people would press on with their struggle until they establish their independent state, saying, “The revolution goes on and will continue".
Abbas further said that the Palestinian nation would not approve Trump’s so-called “deal of the century” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In the wake of Trump’s policy shift on al-Quds, the Palestinian president described the US president’s proposed plan, which is yet to be unveiled, as the “slap of the century,” saying Washington could no more act as a mediator in the so-called peace process with Israel due its bias towards Tel Aviv.
Abbas went on to say that Washington’s punitive measures against the Palestinians would not change their position on “refugee rights.”
Amid tensions with Palestinians, the US ended its decades of funding for the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees and slashed aid for projects in the West Bank and Gaza.
“The continuation of the colonialist settlement and the occupation of the land of the State of Palestine will not break our willpower, nor will it harm our resolve, because our people will not kneel but to Allah, and this is our land and holy places, and this is the land of our forefathers and grandfathers,” he pointed out.
Abbas also warned that Israel’s “racist” laws and measures would not bring security and peace to the occupied territories, but would rather expand the cycle of violence and bloodshed there.
He further congratulated the families of martyrs and prisoners, vowing that the Palestinians will ultimately emerge victorious in their struggles against the Israeli occupation.
