Palestinians Rally to Support Abbas's UN Speech

Palestinians in the West Bank were getting together on the street for the whole Friday afternoon to hear Abbas's speech.

Our correspondent Xiaoyu witnessed local reactions in the West Bank city of Ramallah and filed this report.

 

In Ramallah, people flooded the city center hours before Abbas's speech at the United Nations. A sea of Palestinian national flags and portraits of Abbas demonstrated the power of solidarity 1 on this historic moment for all the Palestinians.

"We are so excited, full of energy, very optimistic about this moment."

"We are occupied for 62 years. We should have the right to have a Palestinian state. All the world should support us to have a state."

Everyone turned to silence as Abbas began to speak. People lined every rooftop around the center square to watch their president on the big screen erected 2 for the occasion.

The festive 3 atmosphere returned after the speech ended. Palestinians were eager to express their excitement.

"The message is strong and clear to Israel. They must end the occupation now. The Palestinians demand a state at this moment."

"You can see all the people are happy, very pleasant. Because they will see the state."

Security is especially tight throughout the day. Clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians stone-throwers took place near Nablus and around East Jerusalem.

Local media reported that a Palestinian was shot dead during a confrontation 4 southeast of the Palestinian city of Nablus.

Regardless of the result by the UN Security Council to accept Palestine as a full member state or not, experts on both sides believe negotiation 5 is the only path to peace.

Here is Palestinian news anylyst Elias Zananiri, who still hopes that the Security Council could fulfill 6 Palestine's wish:

"Abbas is trying to solidify 7 the Palestinian negotiating position by means of international legitimacy 8 and UN resolutions. The rules of the game will change because the Israelis will live with the fact that they are talking to a different state next to it, and settle down all the differences with this state, not with anyone else. "

Doctor Jonathan Spyer from the International Affairs Center of Israel told CRI that neither Abbas nor Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented any new points in their speeches about core issues of the conflict.

"We are not really any new positions in terms of the core issues of the conflict, the refugees, the border, Jerusalem. This is something that remains 9 the case. If there's really a position, it's that there's a deadlock 10 between the two sides. Certainly they (Palestinians) are making themselves center of world attention; this is a very important achievement. But what I'm saying is that in the end of the day you have to go back to the substantive 11 issues of the conflict. In regard of this, nothing much has changed."

Resumption of negotiations 12 is called upon by all the parties involved, though without any hope of resolutions in the near future.

For CRI, this is Zhang Xiaoyu from Ramallah.