In Brussels, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas appeals to the European Union for help in ending Israel’s control over the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“You are our friends, help us,” Abbas says to EU lawmakers on Thursday. He says that “Israel has turned our country into an open-air prison.”
Abbas says Israeli control was only encouraging extremists and fomenting terrorism.
To the applause of lawmakers he says: “Why is international law not being applied in the case of Israel?”
He also backs the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, pending a full Israeli withdrawal.
“If Israel wanted peace with its Arab neighbors, it must end its control over our people and home country first by withdrawing from our lands and acknowledging the rights of our people, which also has a significant interest for Israel as it would be possible then to apply the Arab Peace Initiative in accordance with the Beirut conference of 2002,” Abbas says, according to the Ma’an News Agency.
Earlier, Abbas rejected a suggested meeting with President Reuven Rivlin in Brussels.
Later Thursday, Rivlin was meeting with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
— AP, Times of Israel staff
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From the Liveblog of
Thursday, June 23, 2016
