RAMALLAH, West Bank: Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas stood by his demand for a complete Israeli settlement freeze on Wednesday as he addressed tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered to honor Yasser Arafat.
The fifth anniversary of the iconic leader s death finds Palestinians more divided than ever and his successor Abbas pondering resignation because of stalled US-led peace efforts that have failed to create a Palestinian state.
Abbas insisted the Palestinians remain committed to a peaceful solution to the conflict, but he accused Israel of hindering peace efforts by expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem.
We see Israel confiscating land, building settlements and Judaising Jerusalem with unprecedented speed… and then they ask that we return to negotiations, Abbas told the huge crowd.
The return to negotiations depends on Israel adhering to the terms of reference of peace and that means halting all settlements, including natural growth and Jerusalem.
It is our right to demand the removal of all settlements from our land because they are illegal, he added.
The crowd, waving Palestinian flags and banners of Abbas Fatah party, crammed into the government compound that contains Arafat s tomb to honor the man who catapulted the Palestinian cause on to the world stage and led them through nearly four decades of armed struggle and sputtering peace talks.
A senior Palestinian security official estimated that tens of thousands of people had gathered in and around the Muqataa presidential compound, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority and the site of Arafat s mausoleum.
In the days leading up to the rally,, Abbas aides had said he might resign as president because of his frustrations with the moribund peace efforts, perhaps leading to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority established by Arafat during the Oslo peace process in the 1990s.
The moment of truth has come and we have to be frank with the Palestinian people that we have not been able to reach a two-state solution through 18 years of negotiation, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
We have become convinced that Israel does not want a Palestinian state on lands it occupied in 1967, he said, referring to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the Six Day War.
Abbas has already said he will not seek re-election in a vote he has called for January, and his early resignation would throw the divided Palestinians into new legal and political limbo.
Under Palestinian Basic Law, Abbas resignation would have to be approved by two thirds of the Palestinian parliament. But the chamber has not convened since 2006 and it is unclear whether it would do so if he quits.
If a resignation was approved, the speaker of parliament, Aziz Dweik of the rival Islamist Hamas movement, would assume the presidency until new elections were held within 60 days.
But aides have indicated in recent days that if Abbas steps down the entire Palestinian Authority could collapse, which would spell the end of the already defunct Oslo process and leave nearly four million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank once again dependent on Israel for basic services.
The Palestinians demand for a complete freeze of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem was initially backed by Washington.
But Israel s hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to freeze settlements, and in recent weeks Washington has backed down, calling on both sides to return to the negotiating table without preconditions.
The presence of nearly a half million Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem has long been seen by the Palestinians as a major obstacle to the establishment of a viable independent state.
Arafat, who died aged 75 in a French hospital on Nov. 11, 2004, remains a beloved symbol of unity and resistance to Israel for the Palestinians, who have been driven by factional fighting in recent years.
