Mansour Abbas, chairman of Israel’s Ra’am Party, said in a recent interview that he has been advocating for the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state in meetings with U.S. government officials and others.
“Every week I have two or three meetings with international officials, delegations, ambassadors and the like. And I say to them in a clear manner...It’s on you to take an immediate decision to recognize a Palestinian state,” Abbas said in an undated Arabic-language interview, a clip of which was posted to X on March 26.
“It will give Palestinian hope and enable the Palestinian people to concentrate its energies in building an independent, sovereign Palestinian state,” he added.
פרסום: בראיון שהתקיים לאחרונה סיפר מנסור עבאס שהוא נפגש עם גורמים בינלאומיים, בין השאר עם הממשל האמריקאי, ופועל להכרה חד צדדית במדינה פלסטינית, דבר שגם ימנע לדבריו את "הוויכוח הפנימי" בישראל מפני שתהיה הכרה בינלאומית
— גבע ברין Geva Brin (@GevaBrin) March 26, 2024
על התרגום: @MoranT555 pic.twitter.com/P3FdS9KDpe
Asked to whom he had delivered this message, Abbas answered, “The U.S. government, the European Union, the United Nations and the ambassadors of various countries.”
Sixty-three percent of Israeli Jews oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state, according to a survey published late last month.
On Feb. 21, the Knesset plenum voted 99-11 to back a government decision to reject any unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood, amid reports the Biden administration was considering such a move.
The same survey found that 44% of Israeli Jews said terrorism would intensify should a Palestinian state come into being.
A public opinion poll published on Nov. 14, conducted by the Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD), found that 75% of Palestinians support Hamas’s Oct. 7 murder spree, which left some 1,200 Israelis dead and thousands wounded, as opposed to only 13% who disapprove.
