The Palestinian leader was speaking in Cairo at an emergency session of the Arab League with foreign ministers from around the Arab world. His remarks came following a week of intense debate among Israeli politicians about a Knesset bill which would enshrine Israel’s status as a Jewish state in law.

“We will never recognize the Jewishness of the state of Israel,” Abbas was quoted by Channel 10 saying. The news outlet also reported that Abbas threatened to terminate all security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank unless peace negotiations are revived. Talks collapsed in April, and Israel will not resume them so long as Abbas is partnered with the Hamas terror group in a Palestinian unity government.

Abbas charged that instead of advancing the peace process, Israel was working to set up an apartheid state, including Jews-only buses, establishment of Israeli legal sovereignty over West Bank settlements, the proposed “Jewish state” law, and requirements of declarations of loyalty by citizens.

“Return to negotiations is possible if Israel agrees to a full freeze of settlement [construction], including Jerusalem, release of the fourth group of long-term prisoners, and setting a timetable for negotiations which will begin with setting borders,” Abbas said.

Israel agreed to release four groups of Palestinian prisoners as a precondition for the American-mediated negotiations that began last year, but refused to free the final batch in March in a dispute over Palestinian demands that Israeli Arab prisoners be included, and having failed to secure Abbas’s agreement that the talks would continue beyond the original April deadline.

Abbas said Saturday that the Palestinians weren’t willing to wait any longer for progress and were determined to petition the United Nations Security Council to demand a timetable for the end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.

“It’s impossible for us to wait any longer, because Israel continues its aggression and expropriation of lands and setting facts on the ground by continuing to build settlements,” Abbas was quoted saying. “The government of Israel doesn’t want, for internal reasons, to define its borders and we can’t continue with this situation.”

Abbas was expected to receive Arab League approval to lodge the UN petition in the coming days, but did not say when he would do so.

According to Channel 10, Abbas said he asked US Secretary of State John Kerry to cooperate in drafting the Security Council proposal, in order to put pressure on Israel to cease settlement construction.

The resolution is likely — but not certain — to fail, either because it falls short of the needed votes or because the US will veto it. But it will likely add momentum to international backing for Palestinian statehood.

Abbas warned that the Palestinians could take other steps, including joining the International Criminal Court, if the Security Council rejects the resolution.

The PA president said he would take these steps unless Israel “takes responsibility for the situation.”

“The situations in the [West] Bank is dangerous, and can’t continue,” Abbas said. “All signs point to [the fact that] the American mediation [of peace talks] failed with the end of negotiations.”

AP contributed to this report.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Pope Francis stood Saturday for two minutes of silent prayer facing east in one of Turkey's most important mosques, a powerful vision of Christian-Muslim understanding at a time when neighboring countries are experiencing violent Islamic assault on Christians and religious minorities.

His head bowed, eyes closed and hands clasped in front of him, Francis prayed alongside the Grand Mufti of Istanbul, Rahmi Yaran, in the 17th-century Sultan Ahmet mosque, shifting gears to religious concerns on the second day of his three-day visit to Turkey.

"May God accept it," Yaran told the pope of their prayer.

The Vatican spokesman, Rev. Federico Lombardi called it a moment of "silent adoration." Lombardi said Francis told the mufti twice that Christians and Muslims must "adore" God and not just praise and glorify him.

It was a remarkably different atmosphere from Francis' first day in Turkey, when the simple and frugal pope was visibly uncomfortable with the pomp and protocol required of him for the state visit part of his trip. With President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's mega-palace, honor guard and horseback escort now behind him, Francis got down to the business of being pope, showing respect to Muslim leaders, celebrating Mass for Istanbul's tiny Catholic community and meeting with the spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians.

Francis bowed before Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and asked him "to bless me and the church of Rome" at the end of an ecumenical service Saturday evening. The Orthodox leader obliged, kissing Francis' bowed head. The two major branches of Christianity represented by Bartholomew and Francis split in 1054 over differences on the primacy of the papacy, giving particular resonance to Francis' display of deference.

Francis' visit comes at an exceedingly tense time for Turkey, with Islamic State militants grabbing territory next door in Syria and Iraq and sending some 1.6 million refugees fleeing across the border. Some refugees were expected to attend Francis' final event on Sunday before he returns to Rome.

Francis nodded, smiled and looked up in awe as Yaran gave him a tour of the Blue Mosque, famed for its elaborate blue tiles and cascading domes. Presenting the pope with a blue, tulip-designed tile, Yaran said he prayed to God that his visit would "contribute to the world getting along well and living in peace."

"We are in need of prayers. The world really needs prayers," Yaran said.

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In this photo provided by Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis joins Grand Mufti …

Francis was following in the footsteps of Pope Benedict XVI, who visited Turkey in 2006 amid heightened Christian-Muslim tensions over a now-infamous papal speech linking violence with the Prophet Mohammed. The Vatican added the stop at the Blue Mosque at the last minute to show Benedict's respect for Muslims, a gesture that was greatly appreciated by Turks.

The Vatican also acted to avoid offense to its Muslim hosts this time around by moving up Francis' visit to the mosque so it wouldn't coincide with noon prayers.

After he left, Francis walked a short distance to tour the nearby Haghia Sofia, which was the main Byzantine church in Constantinople — present-day Istanbul — before being turned into a mosque following the Muslim conquest of the city in 1453. The Haghia Sophia is now a museum, although some Islamic groups want it to be converted back into a mosque.

Pope Paul VI, who made the first-ever papal visit to Turkey in 1967, fell to his knees in prayer inside Haghia Sophia, triggering protests by Turks who claimed Paul had violated the secular nature of the domed complex. Francis avoided any religious actions inside.

Halfway through his tour, the Muslim call for prayer echoed off Haghia Sophia's marble walls, an evocative moment that symbolized the crossroads of the Ottoman and Roman empires, East and West, which Istanbul represents.

Museum director Hayrullah Cengiz pointed to a niche with a Byzantine fresco of the Virgin Mary holding an infant Jesus, saying it was his favorite corner because the area also features Arabic writings of the names of the Prophet Mohammed and Allah.

"They are all together," Cengiz said.

Later Saturday, Bartholomew and Francis presided over an ecumenical prayer service at the Orthodox patriarchate on the eve of the feast of St. Andrew which both will celebrate Sunday.

Their embrace at the end of Saturday's service was reminiscent of their meeting in May in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, when Francis bowed down and kissed Bartholomew's hand.

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Suzan Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

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Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

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(An earlier version misspelled the name of the Grand Mufti)

Americans are going to spend more than 600 billion dollars this Christmas season, and on Friday we got to see our fellow citizens fight each other like rabid animals over foreign-made flat screen televisions and Barbie dolls. As disgusting as this behavior is to many of us, there may soon come a time when we will all fondly remember these days. Most Americans are completely unaware of what is currently happening in the financial world, but right now there are deeply troubling signs that we could be on the verge of another major global financial collapse. If the next great economic downturn does strike in 2015, that could mean that we may have just witnessed the last great Black Friday celebration of American materialism. As you read this, stock prices are approximately double the value that they should be, margin debt is hovering near all-time record highs, and the “too big to fail” banks are being far more reckless than they were just prior to the last major stock market implosion. So many of the exact same patterns that we witnessed back in 2007 and 2008 are repeating right now, and as you will see below, this includes a horrifying crash in the price of oil. Anyone with half a brain should be able to see the slow-motion financial train wreck that is unfolding right before our eyes.

Every year, it has been my tradition to write an article about the mini-riots that erupt in retail stores all around the country on Black Friday. This year things were a bit calmer because so many stores opened up on Thanksgiving itself, but there was still plenty of chaos. For example,in the video posted below you can see women viciously fighting one another over discounted lingerie and underwear…

The Finnish parliament has narrowly approved a citizen’s initiative to legalise same-sex marriage.

Gay couples in Finland have been able to enter into registered partnerships since 2002, but until now the country was the only in the Nordic region not to allow same-sex marriage. Finland is now the 12th European state to do so.

In the vote, 105 members of parliament supported the legal amendment while 92 opposed it.

The measure will end the distinction in Finland between same-sex unions and heterosexual marriages and give such couples equal rights to adopt children and share a surname.

“Finland should strive to become a society where discrimination does not exist, human rights are respected and two adults can marry regardless of their sexual orientation,” the centre-right prime minister, Alexander Stubb, said in an open letter before the vote.

Most opponents argued that all children should have the right to a father and mother. “This is a question of the future of our children and the whole society, and such changes should not be made without thorough evaluation of their impact,” Mika Niikko of the nationalist Finns party said before the vote.