Tel Aviv – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the UN Security Council to provide the Palestinians with international protection from Israel amid fears that the Israeli government’s policies “would lead to the entry of Daesh [the Islamic State] into the heart of Israel.”

 According to the Jerusalem Post, a number of UNSC member states at Wednesday’s session expressed their support for  a resolution that would condemn the West Bank settlements and provide protection.

The “basic condition for achieving peace lies in the Palestinians being restored their lands on the 1967 borders,” Abbas said in a radio interview the following day.

 PLO Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour confirmed that the 15 UNSC member states oppose Israeli settlement activity.
 
“If you have this unanimous illegal position, than what is required from the Security Council is to take steps to remove this major obstacle,” he said.
 
But, he added, it is not clear whether the UNSC has the gumption to see that condemnation through with a concrete call to action.
 
Mansour omitted mention of the United States, which is one of five UNSC member states with veto power. The U.S. has previously vetoed or threatened to veto such resolutions.
 
In 1994, the UNSC provided the Palestinians with protection by establishing an International Temporary Presence in Hebron.
 
Abbas claimed that the Palestinians want to resume peace talks and reach an agreement with Israel, “but only on condition that it implements 20 agreements that were signed since the Oslo Accords.”
 
Abbas also added the condition of releasing a fourth group of prisoners incarcerated before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.
 
“The current Israeli government of [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu, which includes seven settlers, does not want peace or the implementation of signed agreements with the Palestinians,” Abbas said. “There is a conviction that the Israeli government won’t halt settlement construction. They have more than half a million settlers in the Palestinian territories.”
 
Abbas ended by reemphasizing his support for the fight against terrorism, but added that the current Israeli government is “lead[ing] to the entry of Daesh [IS] into the heart of Israel.”