US to resume diplomatic ties with Palestinians that were cut under Trump Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the new US Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), speaks to the media at a socially distanced briefing on Main New York City. Israel’s Foreign Ministry has not yet responded to Abbas’s speech but earlier an Israeli official told CNN that Israel “had not given an answer on voting in East Jerusalem neither a yes, nor a no.” In the wake of the postponement, Abbas said he wanted to try to form a government of national unity that would adhere to international resolutions. After that we sent letters to Europe asking, ‘Where are your promises to stand by us?’ And no answer came back.” “We asked the Americans: ‘Where are you?’ They said, ‘We are here.’ We told them we want them to take a position but we did not hear a position from them. In Ramallah Thursday, Abbas lashed out at the United States and the European Union for failing to put enough pressure on Israel to do the same this time. In the last election in 2006, Israel, under pressure from the United States, allowed voting to take place in a number of post offices in East Jerusalem. The issue of whether votes can actually be cast in East Jerusalem is a sensitive one, because Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its sovereign territory, while Palestinians see the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Under the terms of the Oslo Accords, signed by Israel and the PLO in the 1990s, Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem are entitled to vote in Palestinian Authority (PA) elections.
The election will only be reinstated, Abbas said, when “the participation of our people in Jerusalem is guaranteed.” “It is not a technical issue but a national political issue,” he told faction leaders. The reason given was Israel’s own political deadlock, Abbas said, adding that he did not accept this. Andrew Burton/Getty Imagesīut he said he had received a message earlier Thursday that Israel was unable to say whether it would allow voting to take place in East Jerusalem - seen as non-negotiable by Palestinians in the elections. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks at the United Nations General Assembly on September 30, 2015, in New York City.
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