Bethlehem/ PNN/

President Mahmoud Abbas said tonight that our Palestinian people will continue to stand firm on their land and the land of their ancestors, and will protect their cultural heritage and their Christian and Islamic sanctities.

Speaking at a dinner in Bethlehem on the occasion of Christmas for Christian denominations following the Orthodox Church, the President commended the positions of states, international organizations, parliaments, church institutions, and Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, all of which condemned the Israeli far-right government’s violations in occupied Palestine.

"We will firmly confront the serious violations committed by the new Israeli government and extremist settler groups, whether in terms of desecrating Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Islamic and Christian sanctities, or in terms of enacting racist laws and programs of this government that are contrary to international law and signed agreements," the President said.

He added: "We affirm our condemnation and categorical rejection of the repeated attacks on the church property in Jerusalem and in the rest of the Palestinian territories."

“We will remain committed to resisting the Israeli occupation and its settlement policies that aim to undermine the Palestinian Islamic and Christian presence.”