Mahmoud Abbas' UN General Assembly speech falls on dissatisfied Palestinian ears

Hundreds of Palestinians in New York waved flags and chanted slogans of support for Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas, after his speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

The speech aired on big-screen TVs and radios in cities across the Israeli-occupied West Bank Wednesday night.

But most Palestinians couldn't have cared less.

There is deep dissatisfaction among Palestinians these days, and Abbas has increasingly become the target.

• Palestinian flag raised at UN as Mahmoud Abbas renounces agreements with Israel
• Canada among small group of countries to oppose Palestinian flag at UN
• Benjamin Netanyahu blasts Iran nuclear deal at UN General Assembly

The latest round of negotiations with Israel for their state failed in April 2014. There's been no movement on the issue since then. Instead, Israel has continued to increase the number of settlement units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, on land the Palestinians say is theirs.

The 80-year-old Abbas, who's been leading the Palestinians for more than a decade, seems fed up.

"It is no longer useful to waste time in negotiations for the sake of negotiations," he told the UN.

He accused Israel of violating the international agreements that make up the Middle East peace process, including the Oslo Accords which gave the Palestinians limited autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza.

Oslo, which came into force in 1993, was meant to be a temporary arrangement, with the goal of a peace agreement to be concluded five years later.

Abbas told the UN that no longer will the Palestinians "be bound by these agreements," though he declined to name which deals he was referring to.

UN speech 'bombshell' was expected

The Palestinian president and his advisers had been talking for weeks before the speech of dropping a "bombshell" at the UN. There was speculation Abbas might dissolve the Palestinian Authority, or end security co-operation between Palestinian and Israeli forces in the West Bank.

The speech did not provide any explosions. Instead, Abbas stood with his hand on the trigger, in an attempt to get the international community to push Israel back to the negotiating table.

But it just may have backfired.

"I think that this speech did not help much," said Ghassan Khatib, vice-president of Birzeit University, near Ramallah, and a former spokesman for the Palestinian Authority.

"The people around the president raised expectations of the public wrongly, mistakenly. Therefore, many Palestinians were disappointed by this speech," he told CBC News from Ramallah, the de facto Palestinian capital.

And many more are disappointed with Abbas himself.

He's seen by some as an uncharismatic leader, especially compared to his predecessor Yasser Arafat.

The rift between Fatah, the political faction headed by Abbas, and Hamas, which dominates Gaza, has only widened, despite a reconciliation pact signed a year ago.

Abbas accused of being too close with Israelis

Abbas is far from popular in Gaza, and he hasn't visited the coastal enclave since Hamas drove Fatah out in a bloody civil war in 2007.

Critics accuse him of being too close to the Israelis, instead of fighting for a Palestinian state.

Abbas has, however, had success in increasing international recognition for the Palestinian cause.

The United Nations voted to give the Palestinians non-member observer status three years ago (Canada, the United States and Israel, among others voted against this). The Palestinians have also joined the International Criminal Court, and they say they will use the body to go after Israel for alleged war crimes.

Yesterday, after his speech, Abbas walked outside the UN headquarters for the ceremonial raising of the Palestinian flag. The General Assembly voted earlier this month to allow the flags of non-member states to be flown (Canada voted "no" on that as well).

Abbas called it "a most emotional and proud day."

But many Palestinians think it was little more than a waste of time.

"It's just a piece of cloth," a shopkeeper in Jerusalem's old city told CBC News. "[Abbas] raised a flag. But who cares? We need him to do real things. Fix the economy and give us our own country."