Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas holds a map depicting the Trump peace plan’s boundaries for Israel and a Palestinian state as he opposes the blueprint at a United Nations Security Council meeting Tuesday.
Photo: Seth Wenig/Associated PressPalestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the Trump administration’s peace plan at the United Nations, but failed to garner enough support for a Tuesday vote on a Security Council resolution that Palestinian officials had hoped would broadcast strong opposition to the U.S. effort.
The Trump administration’s long-delayed blueprint, unveiled last month, would give Israel control over a united Jerusalem as its capital and allow it to keep all Jewish settlements in the West Bank. It provides the Palestinians a path to their own country with restricted sovereignty under conditions they instantly rejected as heavily tilted toward the Israelis.
“This is an Israeli-American pre-emptive plan in order to put an end to the question of Palestine,” Mr. Abbas told a Security Council meeting on the Middle East.
Instead it creates “Swiss cheese,” Mr. Abbas said while brandishing the map the Trump administration released. It shows parts of the West Bank and Gaza that would be part of a future Palestinian state encircled by Israel and connected by proposed tunnels and railways.
The U.N. has often been a venue of clashes between the Israelis and Palestinians over the path to peace. Palestinians had hoped to gain support for a draft resolution circulated by Tunisia and Indonesia that condemned the Trump effort, but pulled plans for a vote on Tuesday after American lobbying against the measure.
Diplomats said the Palestinians could introduce the measure, and a vote could still be possible.
Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., told the Security Council that the peace plan is “realistic and implementable.”
Mr. Abbas also rejected the U.S. as the sole mediator of the conflict and renewed calls for an international conference for Middle East peace.
According to a poll released Tuesday by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 94% of Palestinians reject the Trump peace plan.
Palestinian efforts to rally opposition to the U.S. blueprint have so far met with limited success. While the European Union and Arab League issued separate statements rejecting the Trump plan after its release, several European and Arab nations independently also called for a return to negotiations.
EU officials also say they are keen to work with Washington on an amended proposal.
The octogenarian leader said he remained committed to the 1993 Oslo Accords that set the terms for relations—including security—between the Palestinians and Israelis.
Immediately after the Trump plan’s release, Mr. Abbas threatened to suspend security cooperation with the Israelis—raising fears of violent clashes between the two sides. Already there has been a spate of violence in the West Bank and a resumption of rockets being fired from Hamas-controlled Gaza into Israel.
Mr. Abbas has threatened to end such cooperation before, but the warnings took on an added urgency as regional officials prepared for possible unrest after the U.S. put out the plan.
Palestinian officials have had no official contact with the Trump administration since December 2017, when President Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and began the process of moving the U.S. embassy there. The U.S. also closed the Palestine Liberation Organization’s mission in Washington and slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in bilateral assistance.
In his speech on Tuesday, Mr. Abbas appeared to try to flatter Mr. Trump at one point, saying the plan doesn’t reflect the person he got to know before the Palestinians cut ties.
“I do not know who gave him this unacceptable advice. I know that Mr. Trump is not like that,” he said.
Israel supports the Trump effort and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to the White House to release the plan alongside the president. U.S. officials said the document reflects U.S.-Israeli agreement on what would be an acceptable arrangement for a Palestinian state.
“Even if one has criticism of the specifics of the plan, you should still embrace its spirit, a spirit that says it’s time to look for a new and pragmatic approach to solving this conflict,” said Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the U.N.
Thousands of Palestinians gathered in Ramallah on Tuesday to reject the Trump blueprint, waving Palestinian flags and holding banners. One sign read, in English, “Bibi and Trump, don’t abuse our patience. #PalestineNotForSale,” using a nickname for Mr. Netanyahu.
Under the Trump administration’s plan, Palestinians would maintain control of about 70% of the West Bank and get a capital in the outskirts of East Jerusalem. Israel would keep control of all of its settlements, home to hundreds of thousands of people.
The plan also creates an immediate path for the U.S. to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the parts of the West Bank that would be in Israel, according to a map released by the Trump administration.
—Laurence Norman in Brussels and Dov Lieber in Tel Aviv contributed to this article.
Write to Felicia Schwartz at Felicia.Schwartz@wsj.com
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