(JTA) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas asked the United Nations Security Council to create a “special regime for international protection for the Palestinian people.”
Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday, Abbas said he was making the request “more urgently than any time before,” according to media reports.
“Protect us, protect us, we need you,” he said.
Abbas accused Israel of carrying out “extrajudicial killings against unarmed civilians,” but did not mention that many Palestinians killed in the past month were shot while carrying out stabbing attacks, according to the Times of Israel.
Abbas also called on the Security Council to set a timeline for Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, reiterated previous assertions that the Palestinians are no longer bound by the Oslo Peace Accords and blamed the recent wave of violence in Israel and the West Bank on the Israeli occupation and the lack of action from the international community.
Israel has accused Abbas of inciting Palestinians in the recent round of violence, which has been marked by numerous stabbing attacks on Israeli civilians and Palestinian claims that Israel was seeking to limit Muslim access to the Temple Mount. Israel has repeatedly denied it is seeking to change the status quo on the mount.
Responding to Abbas’ speech, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said: “President Abbas chose once more the way of propaganda and incitement, instead of the dialogue proposed by Israel.”
The New York Times reported that Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Eviatar Manor, condemned Abbas and the Human Rights Council for holding a “scandalous special meeting” and allowing itself to be used as a stage for propaganda and “fanning the flames of conflict.”
“What we have witnessed today is the glorification of terror and violence,” Manor said following Abbas’ speech. “What the council allowed today is the banalization of the spilling of Jewish blood.”
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