Israeli policies now threaten "the very life and existence of the Palestinian people on their homeland", Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the UN General Assembly on Thursday, urging the world not to allow "another Nakba".
Mr. Abbas addressed the Assembly's annual debate via pre-recorded video after his delegation was, for the second consecutive year, denied the visas needed to travel to the US, measures he called unlawful and a breach of the United States' obligations as host country.
He called on the US administration to reverse such measures and "return to the language of dialogue and mutual respect."
He said Palestinians in Gaza were being subjected to killing, destruction, starvation, attempted forced displacement and a "a war of genocide", while in the West Bank settlement expansion was accelerating.
He added that East Jerusalem was being isolated and settler terrorism was escalating under the occupation forces. Moreover, crimes of land theft, home demolitions, roadblocks and incursions continue.
'Not separate events'
What is happening in Gaza and in the West Bank and East Jerusalem "are not separate events", he said, but "part of a malicious colonial plan" to make Palestinian life harder and drive people to forced departure from their land.
"For how long will some states continue to remain silent about Israel, or supply it with the weapons it uses against our people?" he asked.
