LONDON: Palestinians are facing the most dangerous time in their history, President Mahmoud Abbas told the UN General Assembly on Thursday.

He accused Israel of destroying the two-state solution, and urged US President Donald Trump to honor his commitment to prevent Palestinian displacement.

Abbas was speaking via video link after the Palestinian delegation was denied entry visas by the US, preventing travel to UN headquarters in New York.

He highlighted the decades of “historic injustice, uprooting, asylum-seeking, occupation, and the deprivation of the basic right to self-determination, freedom and independence” that his people have suffered.

Yet after years of bloodshed in the Gaza Strip and escalating settler violence in the West Bank — the subject of mounting international scrutiny — Palestinians now face the most dangerous time in their history, Abbas said.

“In the Gaza Strip, our people are being subjected at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces to killing, destruction, starvation and attempts at displacement, as well as a genocidal war that has created an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” he added.

In razing “neighborhoods, cities, camps, institutions, schools, universities, hospitals, mosques and churches,” Israel is seeking to dismantle “all the basic necessities of life and the future of entire generations.”

Meanwhile, Israel is “isolating and Judaizing” Jerusalem, with Palestinians in the east of the holy city subject to land theft, home demolitions, checkpoints and a growing surveillance state.

This “system of laws, measures and practices” is built on “racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing and state terrorism,” said Abbas.

An even greater threat than the destruction of the two-state solution lies ahead, he added, as Israel seeks to challenge the “very life and existence of the Palestinian people on their homeland.

“What’s taking place in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem aren’t isolated incidents, but rather a malicious colonial scheme aimed at making the lives of Palestinians more difficult in their homeland and forcing them to leave it,” Abbas said.

“We warn you today: Don’t allow another Nakba to occur. Don’t allow further massacres like those that occurred in 1948. Don’t allow terrorist gangs protected by the Israeli occupation forces to burn Palestinian homes while their occupants are sleeping inside them. Don’t allow our children to live afraid and threatened.”

He questioned the inaction and silence of some states regarding Palestine, and challenged those that continue to supply Israel with weapons “that it uses against our people.”

He added: “The world has witnessed the tremendous cost in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, so what is the international community waiting for in order to protect the Palestinian people, ensure their continued presence on their land, end the Israeli occupation and implement the two-state solution on the basis of international legitimacy?”

Abbas praised Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, but said there has been little progress on the ground.

“The Israeli killing and aggression continue to claim the lives of men, women and children in Gaza,” he said, adding that the plan’s implementation must be expedited before the end of the transitional period next year.

“The transitional period mustn’t be allowed to become a permanent or open-ended situation without any clear time-bound political horizon; rather, it must lead to the reunification of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, under the authority of the State of Palestine and its legitimate institutions, in accordance with the principle of one state, one government, one law, and one legitimate entity authorized to bear arms.”

Abbas condemned Israeli attacks on Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, including Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

In light of Israel’s E1 settlement plan — which would prevent a geographically contiguous Palestinian state — the UN Security Council should urgently implement its 2016 resolution 2334, which orders the cessation of all settlement activities in occupied Palestinian territory, he added.

Abbas welcomed recent measures taken by the UK and 12 other countries to ban products from illegal Israeli settlements.

Israel’s land seizures in the occupied West Bank, coupled with the dismantling of Palestinian institutions and financial pressure, are part of an overall strategy to “weaken our people’s ability to remain steadfast and stay on our land,” he said.

The Palestinian Authority, a year after the landmark New York Declaration co-sponsored by Saudi Arabia and France, has fulfilled its pledge to the framework that lays out tangible steps toward the two-state solution, Abbas added.

“We completed the national reform program to which we’d committed before our people and the international community; we strengthened institutional governance, public financial management, transparency, accountability, anti-corruption measures and the rule of law.

“We seek security and peace for all. We reject attacks against civilians by any party whatsoever. We reject terrorism and extremism in all their forms; we combat antisemitism, racism and hatred; and we believe in a culture of peace, dialogue and coexistence,” Abbas said.

“We seek a democratic Palestinian state that respects the rule of law and human rights; a non-militarized state that lives in security and peace alongside the state of Israel.”

The Palestinian people will “remain on their land,” he added, warning that neither annexation nor settler terrorism can serve as a solution or build lasting security for the region.

“At the same time, we won’t remain in waiting, nor will we accept whatever the governments of the Israeli occupying state decide for us: They have no right to decide for us,” he said.

“We don’t want a new process for managing the conflict while the face of the land changes every day; we want a process that puts an end to occupation and guarantees freedom and self-determination for Palestinians.”

Abbas addressed the “sons and daughters of our Palestinian people in their homeland and in the diaspora,” praising them for “painting the greatest picture of pride and dignity.

“We won’t leave our homeland, we won’t accept displacement, and we won’t allow anyone to decide our future on our behalf.”