Also speaking before the U.N. General Assembly Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Israel over Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, saying more than 500 settler attacks had been carried out on Palestinians since the beginning of the year. Abbas also vowed to continue seeking non-member status at the United Nations for Palestine. In his condemnation of Israeli government policy, Abbas invoked the term “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” which refers to the period around Israel’s declaration of statehood in 1948 when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their homes.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: “Israel refuses to end the occupation and refuses to allow the Palestinian people to attain their rights and freedom and rejects the establishment of the state of Palestine. Israel is promising the Palestinian people a new catastrophe, a new Nakba.”