Palestine's Abbas seeks support as Arab League concludes summit

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has urged Arab leaders to boost support in the face of "crimes" by Israel, where veteran hawk Benjamin Netanyahu looks set to clinch an election victory.

Without referring to the Israeli election, the president said on Wednesday that Israel was "systematically destroying the two-state solution and throwing away agreements it has signed".

He urged Arab leaders to "save the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre before they're Judaised", referring to sensitive religious sites in the Old City of occupied east Jerusalem.

Abbas listed a string of "crimes" against his people since Britain's 1917 Balfour Declaration expressed support for a Jewish state.

Abbas was addressing the first Arab League summit since the United Arab Emirates normalised ties with the Jewish state in 2020, sparking a string of similar moves that have divided the region.

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'Concrete actions' not statements

Leaders addressing Wednesday's concluding session took turns in declaring support for a Palestinian state, a sentiment which will figure in the summit's final resolution.

Algiers remains a steadfast supporter of the Palestinians.

On Tuesday, summit host Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune told the opening session that "our central and primary cause remains the Palestinian cause".

Tebboune also called for unity to face escalating "tensions and crises", that he said were the worst in the Arab world's recent history.

In his speech on Tuesday, Tebboune did not directly mention the normalisation deals, but insisted that a 2002 Arab initiative - proposing peace in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from land it occupied during the 1967 war - was the only way to reach "a just and comprehensive peace".

He also called for a United Nations General Assembly session to give full membership to the state of Palestine.

But an editorial in the Palestinian Al Quds newspaper said Palestinians "don't need any more statements, of which we've heard many, but concrete actions on the ground".

The 22-state Arab League has for decades been a forum for strident statements of solidarity with the Palestinians but has had little real impact in its 77 years of existence.

READ MORE: Algeria hosts first Arab League summit since Abraham accords