Palestinians Condemn Obama Hypocrisy...

Palestinians Condemn Obama Hypocrisy...

Courtesy of rt.com

Political demonstrators rallying near the residence of President Mahmoud Abbas have slammed the American president over his promise to veto the Palestinian bid for statehood recognition.
­Dozens of protesters have gathered outside Mahmoud Abbas’s office in the Palestinian city of Ramallah on Thursday, Israeli daily Haaretz reports.
Many waved anti-Obama slogans, among which there was a banner reading “Obama the Hypocrite” and another claiming that the US president is siding “with killers against victims,” according to the paper.
The newspaper cited Egypt’s Al Ahram newspaper as saying that on Friday activists in different Arab countries are due to protest Obama’s opposition to Palestinian’s bid for statehood.
In Tel Aviv, a group of Israeli intellectuals has also taken out to the streets to support the Palestinians, RT correspondent Paula Slier reports.
According to Slier, university professors, writers and members of parliament are protesting outside the Museum of Independence, which is symbolic, as it was the venue where, back in 1948, Israel announced its state of independence.
The group is calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to recognize the Palestinian state and for both countries to coexist peacefully.
“At this juncture we believe that if Israel takes the active part and initiates and thinks outside of the box a bit and recognizes Palestine, the first country to recognize Palestine could be Israel and what a change that would be!”
one of the rally organizers, Tal Harris of OneVoice Movement, told RT.


Dr. Mukhaimer Abu Saada, political science professor at Gaza-based al-Azhar University points out that the Palestinians have long been trying to negotiate directly with Israel, but with no progress. Quite the opposite, the Palestinians continue to lose their lands to Israeli settlements.
“The Palestinians have been negotiating with the Israelis for 20 years now, for God’s sake, since the convening of the Madrid Peace Conference in October 1991 and the Oslo Agreement was signed in September 1993. It’s more than 18 years since the signing of the Oslo Agreement and we haven’t seen an end to the Israeli occupation,”
the political scientist told RT.
“What we see is expanding of Israeli settlements, expanding of the numbers of Israeli settlers. From 200,000 in 1993, now the number is 600,000 Israeli Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”
It is the time for the international community to intervene, Abu Saada added.
“It’s a very frustrating situation, and I don’t know how much [longer] the Palestinian people can wait for the international community to intervene and put an end to this Israeli aggression and occupation,” he said.