In his annual Christmas message, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on the international community to protect Palestinians from the Israeli “Apartheid” regime.

In a speech made Wednesday, Abbas accused Israel of continuing to “consolidate an Apartheid regime by accelerating policies that destroy the two-state solution.”

He explained that this Christmas was an especially difficult time for Palestinians and that international intervention is “desperately needed to protect the Palestinians.”

The PA leader repeated other claims of crimes against Palestinians at the hands of Israel, such as the construction of an “Annexation Wall” and the uprooting of “historic olive trees.”

Abbas said that “Jesus is a symbol for all Palestinians,” adding that “Palestine and its people take pride in being the birthplace of Christianity and having the oldest Christian community in the world.”

This year, Abbas bemoaned the fact that Palestinians living in Bethlehem would be “surrounded by 18 illegal settlements and an annexation wall, which are taking over their land.”

He accused Israel of attacking churches and mosques, adding that the “twin cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem have been separated for the first time in more than 2,000 years of Christianity.”

“There can be no Palestinian State without East Jerusalem as its capital, reunited with Bethlehem and the rest of Palestine,” Abbas stated.