Abbas Meets with Israeli Delegation in Ramallah

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel's Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz. Photo: Horowitz' Twitter Account
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel's Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz. Photo: Horowitz' Twitter Account
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Abbas Meets with Israeli Delegation in Ramallah

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel's Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz. Photo: Horowitz' Twitter Account
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel's Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz. Photo: Horowitz' Twitter Account

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met an Israeli government delegation in Ramallah Sunday evening, the second meeting between the two sides in a month, said sources on both sides.

Abbas received Israel's Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Freij and deputy Michal Rozin, all from the left-wing Meretz party, part of the ruling coalition.

"The president underlined the importance of ending the Israeli occupation and achieving a just and global peace conforming to international resolutions," the territory's official news agency WAFA reported.

Abbas also stressed the need to put an end to the settlements, and to end the expulsion of Palestinian families from different parts of East Jerusalem, WAFA added.

The Meretz members reiterated their support for a two-state solution to the conflict, for an independent Palestinian state and the need to build trust between the two sides.

Meretz leader Horowitz has been harshly criticized by the right in Israel for his meetings with Abbas.

Horowitz posted a picture of himself and Abbas on Twitter. “We have a shared mission: to preserve the hope for peace, on the basis of a two-state solution," he said.

In late August, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited the Palestinian Authority's headquarters for talks with Abbas, the first such official meeting at this level in several years.

But after those talks, Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that there was no peace process ongoing with the Palestinians, "and there won't be one".

The new Israeli government is comprised of eight parties spanning the Israeli political spectrum, from far-right hardliners who oppose a Palestinian state to dovish parties that support a two-state solution. Horowitz leads the most dovish faction in the coalition.

Bennett comes from a small, hardline religious party, and he has ruled out the establishment of a Palestinian state on his watch. But he has called for reducing frictions, primarily by taking steps to boost the Palestinian economy.



Arab League Urges UN Security Council to Stop Israeli Assault against Palestinian People

A man prepares meals to be distributed to displaced Palestinians in front of a leveled building in Gaza City on November 2, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A man prepares meals to be distributed to displaced Palestinians in front of a leveled building in Gaza City on November 2, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Arab League Urges UN Security Council to Stop Israeli Assault against Palestinian People

A man prepares meals to be distributed to displaced Palestinians in front of a leveled building in Gaza City on November 2, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A man prepares meals to be distributed to displaced Palestinians in front of a leveled building in Gaza City on November 2, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

The Arab League urged on Saturday the UN Security Council and the international community to assume their responsibilities and exert pressure on Israel to stop its assaut against the Palestinian people and to ensure that it provides all humanitarian assistance needed by the people in Gaza Strip.

In a statement marking the 107th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the Arab League urged Britain and all the other countries that did not recognize the Palestinian state to take this step in support of peace in line with the two-state solution.

It emphasized that the only way to achieve just, comprehensive and lasting peace is to end the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian and Arab territories occupied since 1967, and to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital according to international resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.

"The Balfour Declaration continues to be a profound wound in the human conscience due to the Nakba that the Palestinian people have experienced and the ongoing deprivation of their legitimate and inalienable rights to freedom and independence. This refers to the Israeli occupation's violations and practices, settlement and Judaization, annexation and siege, the destruction of the Palestinian people's livelihoods, and the desecration of their religious shrines," the Arab League statement said.

It stressed that Israel's continued crimes and violations are a reflection of the international community's inability to fulfil its obligations and assume its responsibilities in resisting aggression and occupation, protecting the Palestinian people.

It must ask Israel to comply with the principles of international law and relevant resolutions in a manner that ends the occupation and allows the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination in an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The Arab League stressed that Israel continues to insist on expanding the area of its hostilities to include Lebanon and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights despite the imminent danger of a regional war.

Moreover, the Israeli Knesset's decision to ban UNRWA's work in the occupied Palestinian territories is an additional flagrant violation of the UN Charter, of the international will, and of all human values.

The aim of this step is to destroy generations of Palestinians for whom the UN agency represents a lifeline in catastrophic humanitarian conditions. It is imperative that Israel stop these crimes and protect the agency's work in accordance with its UN mandate.