PALESTINIAN OFFICIALS are planning worldwide mass rallies on September 20th, when Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will present the United Nations with a formal request for recognition.
“We chose to submit it in September because the Lebanese envoy will be president of the Security Council and plays a pivotal role,” said Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki.
Israel and the United States oppose the idea, saying it is a unilateral move in a process that should be negotiated between the parties. European nations have yet to decide their vote.
Mr Abbas will personally hand the request to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, said Mr Malki.
The US has already said it will cast a veto in the council, depriving the process of any legal value, but the Palestinians hope to win a solid majority and a moral victory in the General Assembly, where they already have 117 votes.
Announcing the move to the US consul general in Jerusalem and a meeting of his Fatah faction, Mr Abbas said the decision to seek UN recognition was “a result of Israeli intransigence and refusal to hold serious negotiations that would lead to ending the Israeli occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital,” said Palestinian news agency Wafa.
He said Israeli policy was “the real obstacle to resuming real negotiations to end the occupation and establish a Palestinian state.”
Israeli president Shimon Peres, who held four rounds of secret peace talks with Mr Abbas before they were abandoned on orders of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “A UN declaration would be meaningless and only prolong the conflict. I hope that both sides return to the negotiating table before September.”
However, Mr Malki said the UN had “a moral, legal, political and historical responsibility to recognise Palestine as a state and grant it full membership.” Some Israeli leaders have voiced strong concerns about the emerging Palestinian bid. They fear the rallies could plunge the region into another bloody uprising.
The Israeli daily Haaretz said the tone of Israeli government reaction bordered on “hysteria”. In an apparent effort to dampen fears, Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak said in a radio interview yesterday he hoped events would unfold quietly. He said Israel has no plan to mobilise additional military reserves, but it has bought “tens of millions of shekels’ worth of riot-dispersal gear” and invested in intelligence gathering.