THE Arab League backed French proposals for ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine on Saturday ahead of Friday’s international summit in Paris.

Arab foreign ministers gathered in Cairo adopted a resolution backing “the French initiative and all Arab and international efforts” for peace talks between Israel and Palestine.

Arab League secretary-general Nabil al-Arabi said Israel “has truly become today the last bastion of fascism, colonialism and racial discrimination in the world.”

The Paris meeting will include foreign ministers from a host of countries including US Secretary of State John Kerry — but without representation from Palestine or Israel.

On the French initiative, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the Arab League ministers: “Its purpose must be to implement the visions of both states, based on the border agreement of 1967.”

Mr Abbas said he would be willing to comprise on territorial claims over the pre-1967 Green Line but insisted that East Jerusalem must be the capital of a future independent state.

“We will be prepared to accept a slight exchange of territory,” he said.

Mr Abbas rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand for Palestinian recognition of Israel as an exclusively Jewish state.

“We have previously recognised the state of Israel but we will not accept or recognise the terms of a Jewish state,” he said.

“We demand a Palestinian state on Palestinian lands and we will not allow any Israeli presence inside Palestinian territory.”

Mr Abbas added that he would be prepared to see Nato troops in the occupied territories in place of Israeli occupation forces as part of a peace deal — an idea he has floated before.

On Friday a group of more than 200 retired Israeli generals and intelligence officers slammed Mr Netanyahu’s increasingly extremist government’s failure to reach a deal to end the occupation, saying it was jeopardising hopes for a two-state solution to the conflict.

Commanders for Israel’s Security presented an action plan that chairman Amnon Reshef said “refutes the fearmongers” who claim there is no Palestinian “partner for peace” or that conditions are not right for negotiations.