An Israeli soldier keeps watch near Palestinian flags in the Jewish settlement of Halamish after Palestinian activists started a surveillance campaign throughout the Israeli-occupied West Bank to monitor settler's illegal activities on Monday. The Palestinians are preparing to submit a formal request to become the 194th member of the United Nations when the General Assembly begins its meetings on September 20, despite US and Israeli opposition |
Photograph by: Abbas Momani, AFP/Getty Images
NEW YORK — President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in New York on Monday vowing to press ahead with plans to seek full UN membership for a Palestinian state as officials scrambled to head off a fresh diplomatic crisis in the Middle East.
Abbas, speaking to reporters en route to the UN General Assembly in New York, said "all hell has broken out" over the statehood bid, but pledged to push forward despite warnings from the United States and Israel that it could have bad repercussions.
"To what extent, we will know later on," said Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, which depends on international financial aid for its survival in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The United States and Israel wanted to keep the peace process restricted to "a bilateral dialogue" overseen from afar by Washington, he said. But for nearly two decades, or since the Oslo Accords in 1993, this dialogue had failed, prompting the UN membership move.
"We decided to take this step and all hell has broken out against us," he told reporters on his flight to New York.
Abbas is due to meet UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday, but Palestinian officials say he will wait until Friday to present the UN chief with the request for full UN membership. On that day he will also address the General Assembly.
But the United States has said it will block the Palestinian bid for full UN membership on the grounds that only a resumption of a two-decade old negotiation process can advance the cause of peace.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said he would meet Abbas on Monday and warned that the status quo was neither acceptable nor tenable and "risks an explosion of violence."
Juppe said the Palestinian bid would not pass the Security Council and that both Israel and the Palestinians must take steps to find a durable solution.
"The only solution is to resume talks," he said.
Some members of the Israeli government are calling for tough retaliation against a Palestinian move they say aims to isolate Israel. Some U.S. politicians have said they will try to cut American aid to the Palestinians, totaling some $500 million a year, if they refuse to back down.
VETO POWER
The Palestinian Authority already faces a financial crisis this year because of a shortfall in aid from Arab states.
Holding Israel responsible for the failure of the peace process to date, the Palestinians say the UN bid will help to level the playing field with their more powerful adversary before any future negotiations.
But it is destined to fail because of opposition from the United States, which has veto power in the Security Council.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he expected that outcome. "Their attempt to be accepted as a regular member of the UN, this attempt will fail," he said during a weekly cabinet meeting.
"I believe that in the end, after the smoke clears, after everything that happens in the UN, ultimately the Palestinians will come to their senses — that's my hope — and will abandon these negotiations-circumventing maneuvers and will sit down at the table," he said.
The last round of direct talks between Abbas and Netanyahu collapsed nearly a year ago because of a row over Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements on the land where the Palestinians aim to found an independent state.
The Palestinians argue that the expansion of the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is undermining the chances of establishing a viable state of Palestine on those lands, together with the Gaza Strip.
Abbas said Western mediators, who have been trying to dissuade the Palestinians from pursuing the UN path, had brought nothing new during talks last week. He repeated his view that negotiations remain his "fundamental choice." "But on what foundations?" he said.
Anticipating the failure of the membership application, the Palestinians have said they could go to the UN General Assembly to request an upgrade in their standing from their current status as an "entity" to "a non-member state."
Not requiring Security Council approval, the Palestinians expect such a step to succeed due to the support they say they have from at least 126 members of the 193-member General Assembly.
But Abbas said the Palestinians' only decision so far was to request full membership through the Security Council. "From now until I give the speech, we have only one choice: going to the Security Council. Afterwards, we will sit and decide," he said.
Abbas, speaking to reporters en route to the UN General Assembly in New York, said "all hell has broken out" over the statehood bid, but pledged to push forward despite warnings from the United States and Israel that it could have bad repercussions.
"To what extent, we will know later on," said Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, which depends on international financial aid for its survival in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The United States and Israel wanted to keep the peace process restricted to "a bilateral dialogue" overseen from afar by Washington, he said. But for nearly two decades, or since the Oslo Accords in 1993, this dialogue had failed, prompting the UN membership move.
"We decided to take this step and all hell has broken out against us," he told reporters on his flight to New York.
Abbas is due to meet UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday, but Palestinian officials say he will wait until Friday to present the UN chief with the request for full UN membership. On that day he will also address the General Assembly.
But the United States has said it will block the Palestinian bid for full UN membership on the grounds that only a resumption of a two-decade old negotiation process can advance the cause of peace.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said he would meet Abbas on Monday and warned that the status quo was neither acceptable nor tenable and "risks an explosion of violence."
Juppe said the Palestinian bid would not pass the Security Council and that both Israel and the Palestinians must take steps to find a durable solution.
"The only solution is to resume talks," he said.
Some members of the Israeli government are calling for tough retaliation against a Palestinian move they say aims to isolate Israel. Some U.S. politicians have said they will try to cut American aid to the Palestinians, totaling some $500 million a year, if they refuse to back down.
VETO POWER
The Palestinian Authority already faces a financial crisis this year because of a shortfall in aid from Arab states.
Holding Israel responsible for the failure of the peace process to date, the Palestinians say the UN bid will help to level the playing field with their more powerful adversary before any future negotiations.
But it is destined to fail because of opposition from the United States, which has veto power in the Security Council.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he expected that outcome. "Their attempt to be accepted as a regular member of the UN, this attempt will fail," he said during a weekly cabinet meeting.
"I believe that in the end, after the smoke clears, after everything that happens in the UN, ultimately the Palestinians will come to their senses — that's my hope — and will abandon these negotiations-circumventing maneuvers and will sit down at the table," he said.
The last round of direct talks between Abbas and Netanyahu collapsed nearly a year ago because of a row over Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements on the land where the Palestinians aim to found an independent state.
The Palestinians argue that the expansion of the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is undermining the chances of establishing a viable state of Palestine on those lands, together with the Gaza Strip.
Abbas said Western mediators, who have been trying to dissuade the Palestinians from pursuing the UN path, had brought nothing new during talks last week. He repeated his view that negotiations remain his "fundamental choice." "But on what foundations?" he said.
Anticipating the failure of the membership application, the Palestinians have said they could go to the UN General Assembly to request an upgrade in their standing from their current status as an "entity" to "a non-member state."
Not requiring Security Council approval, the Palestinians expect such a step to succeed due to the support they say they have from at least 126 members of the 193-member General Assembly.
But Abbas said the Palestinians' only decision so far was to request full membership through the Security Council. "From now until I give the speech, we have only one choice: going to the Security Council. Afterwards, we will sit and decide," he said.
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Abbas+says+hell+broken+Palestine/5424640/story.html#ixzz1YPfM1gU2
Abbas says 'all hell broken out' on Palestine's UN bid
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