Tens of thousands of flag-waving Palestinians rallied in towns across the occupied West Bank today in a show of support for President Mahmoud Abbas's bid to win UN recognition of a Palestinian state.
Participants called for the establishment of an independent Palestine and slammed the US for pledging to block the bid if necessary, by using its veto in the security council.
Ramallah's main square was bedecked with images of Mr Abbas and late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, along with Palestine Liberation Organisation and Palestinian Authority flags.
The crowd cheered when a masked youth on a stage burned a US flag before being led away by Palestinian security forces.
The rallies were staged far from possible friction points with Israeli occupation forces, though in two locations small groups of boys broke away and threw stones at Israeli troops who responded with tear gas.
In Hebron, where several hundred Israeli colonists live in a heavily fortified city-centre enclave, dozens of Palestinian riot police eventually dispersed stone throwers.
No casualties were reported in either incident.
Mr Abbas is to address the UN general assembly on Friday and request full UN membership.
"We are going to the UN because we are tired of negotiations for the sake of negotiations," Mr Abbas's aide Tayeb Abdel Rahim told supporters in Ramallah.
A new poll has found that 83 per cent of Palestinian people believe that the president's quest for UN recognition is a good idea.
The survey, conducted in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem last week by the independent Palestinian centre for policy and survey research, included 1,200 respondents and had an error margin of 3 percentage points.
But Birzeit University professor Asem Khalil struck a note of caution.
He warned that even if the UN recognises Palestine it will not automatically turn Gaza and the occupied territories into a sovereign state, because Tel Aviv has no intention of dismantling the occupation.
"Just this morning someone was saying to me that after the vote there will be no checkpoints," Professor Khalil said.
"The Palestinian Authority has contributed to this popular illusion and this will soon have a very negative impact against the Palestinian people."
Home - Morning Star
No comments:
Post a Comment