“We will not leave our homeland,” declared the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, when he spoke to the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) 80th session in its New York headquarters on Thursday.

He was allowed to participate virtually when UNGA members voted in his favour after the United States (US) had denied him a visa to travel to New York.

In his address, Mahmoud Abbas called the world’s attention to the atrocities being committed by Israel since October 2023.

Abbas said that his people are not going to leave; they will stay as this land belongs to them.

“Palestine is ours. Jerusalem is the jewel of our heart and our eternal capital. We will not leave our homeland. We will not leave our lands,” he said, according to a translation provided by the UN.

“Our people will remain rooted like the olive trees, firm as the rocks. We will rise from under the rubble to rebuild,” he continued.

He also offered to work with the US, France, and Saudi Arabia to work out the plans for peace in the Palestinian territory.

‘Our people will not forget’, Abbas thanks countries for recognising Palestinian state

“We urge all the states that have not done so yet to recognise the State of Palestine. We call on supporting Palestine obtaining a full membership in the United Nations,” Abbas said, according to a translation provided by the U.N.

“We would like to thank France, the UK, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Portugal, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, Andorra and Denmark for their recognition of the State of Palestine. We would like to thank all 149 states which had previously recognised the State of Palestine. Our people will not forget this noble position.”

“We highly appreciate all the people and organisations around the world who protested in support of the rights of the Palestinian people to freedom and independence, and to stop the war, destruction and starvation. We reject confusing the solidarity with the Palestinian cause and the issue of anti-Semitism, which is something that we reject based on our values and principles,” he said.

Abbas calls Israel’s actions a ‘war crime’

“What Israel is carrying out is not merely an aggression, it is a war crime and a crime against humanity that is both documented and monitored, and it will be recorded in history books and the pages of international conscious as one of the most horrific chapters of humanitarian tragedy in the 20th and 21st centuries,” Abbas said, according to a translation provided by the U.N.

“Despite all that our people have suffered, we reject what Hamas carried out on the 7th of October,” Abbas said.

“Hamas will not have a role to play in governance. Hamas and other factions will have to hand over their weapons to the Palestinian National Authority.”