The core issue here is that the Israeli government refuses to

"The core issue here is that the Israeli government refuses to commit to terms of reference for the negotiations that are based on international law and United Nations resolutions, and that it frantically continues to intensify building of settlements on the territory of the State of Palestine." — Mahmoud Abbas

Hear now the solemn voice of Mahmoud Abbas, a man who has long stood in the crossroads of history, bearing the weight of a nation’s unfulfilled promise. When he spoke these words before the assembly of nations, they were not the mere language of politics, but the cry of a people who have waited generations for justice. His declaration unveils the core issue—not the noise of the passing moment, but the heart of a conflict that has endured for decades: the refusal to honor international law, the disregard of United Nations resolutions, and the relentless expansion of settlements upon land that was meant for peace.

These words come from a long and painful lineage of struggle, stretching back to the mid-twentieth century, when the land of Palestine was divided by decree and drenched in sorrow. For generations, promises were written and broken. Treaties were drafted, then forgotten. In every season, the people of that land—farmers, shepherds, merchants, children—found their lives shaped by forces far beyond their control. Abbas speaks as one who has seen hope raised and dashed, negotiations begun and abandoned, each time with the same wound left open. His lament is not only political—it is deeply human: how can peace take root when the very soil of the promised land is seized and built upon before the promise itself is kept?

To understand the weight of his words, recall the many attempts at peace—Oslo, Camp David, Annapolis—moments when the world leaned in and held its breath, believing that justice might at last prevail. Yet each time, as hope flickered, new walls were raised, new homes were built on contested ground, and trust was buried beneath stone and steel. Thus Abbas declares, with sorrow and indignation, that the negotiations themselves have been stripped of meaning, for how can one negotiate while the other continues to take? How can a dialogue of equals exist when one hand signs agreements and the other builds over them?

The settlements, in this vision, are not mere structures—they are symbols of defiance against the order of law and the spirit of peace. Each one stands as a monument to broken faith, a physical manifestation of the widening distance between justice and reality. Abbas’ words call to mind the ancient prophets who spoke against kings who built on unjust ground. For even in the oldest scriptures, it is written that the house built on stolen land cannot stand. The moral law of humanity—older than any charter—declares that peace cannot grow where dignity is denied.

But his message is not a call to hatred; it is a plea for accountability, for a return to the path of law, fairness, and conscience. He invokes international law and United Nations resolutions not as weapons, but as the agreed voice of the world—the compass that humanity itself set to guide the powerful and protect the powerless. His cry is a call for consistency: that those who speak of freedom must defend it not only in word, but in deed; that those who claim to uphold justice must do so even when it is inconvenient to their allies.

The story of this conflict, like so many before it, reminds us that power without restraint breeds despair, and despair without hope breeds endless resistance. The lesson of Abbas’s words reaches beyond borders—it is the eternal truth that peace cannot be built on injustice. When a people’s homeland is encroached upon, their dreams cannot be silenced by walls or decrees. True reconciliation begins only when both sides stand upon the same moral ground, guided not by might, but by mutual recognition of humanity.

So let every generation who hears these words take heed: whether in Palestine or anywhere in the world, justice delayed is peace denied. Stand always for the rule of law, even when the world grows weary of it. Speak for those whose voices are drowned by power, and measure every nation not by its strength, but by its integrity. Build no peace that is not rooted in equality, and raise no walls that divide the human soul. For only when all people dwell in dignity upon their own soil can the song of peace rise over the land and be heard among the stars.