Abbas reaffirms he will demand full UN membership for a Palestinian state

Saturday, September 17th 2011 - 05:05 UTC

Full article 3 comments

“We are going to request our legitimate right”, anticipated Mahmoud Abbas

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday he would demand full membership of the United Nations when he goes to the UN General Assembly next week, setting up a diplomatic clash with Israel and the United States.

“We are going to the United Nations to request our legitimate right, obtaining full membership for Palestine in this organization,” Abbas said in a televised speech.

“We are going to the Security Council” he added, to rapturous applause from his audience of Palestinian leaders. “As for other options, we have not yet taken a decision on them,” he said.

Both Israel and the United States are firmly opposed to such a move, arguing that a Palestinian state can only be created through direct negotiations.

Washington has already said it will veto any statehood resolution in the Security Council and some US politicians have said they will try to cut American aid to the Palestinians, totalling some 500 million dollars a year, if they refuse to back down.

If the United States does veto the resolution, the Palestinians could then go to the full UN General Assembly. It does not have the power to grant the Palestinians membership, but could recognise it as a non-member state.

Such a move would give the Palestinians possible access to other international bodies, including the International Criminal Court, from where it could seek to sue Israel for the longstanding occupation of the West Bank.

Abbas said he wanted to see a Palestinian state recognised on the basis of the 1967 lines, comprising the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, adding that this would then enable the Palestinians to return to negotiations with Israel.

He stressed that any popular protests in support of his initiative should be peaceful. Israel fears that the UN showdown could spark violence across the West Bank and is putting its forces on high alert in the area.

Abbas is due to address the UN General Assembly on Sept. 23, when he said he would present Palestine's membership bid.

Categories: Politics, International.

Tags: Mahmoud Abbas., Palestine, United Nations.

Top Comments

Disclaimer & comment rules

Redhoyt
Perhaps Dick Sawle should do the same for the Falklands :-)
Sep 17th, 2011 - 09:23 am 0
Typhoon
What needs to be said is that there has NEVER been a country, nation or state called palestine. Palestine is just a geographical area. A little bit of research shows that 3,000 years ago there were the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. So that establishes Israel's right to the land it occupies. Now what about the so-called palestinians? After some research, I believe I've established that they are Arabs and therefore have no claim to any Israeli land. They also tend to be muslims and terrorists. And I'm sure we all have our opinions on muslim fanatics. But that's quite recent. Only about 1,360 years. After some arab crazy decided they ought to have a cult to justify their hatred of all non-arabs. That's why most muslim prophets are Jewish prophets. He couldn't cope with making up too much history, so he just stole from proper religions. Everybody should read the Wikipedia article on “Cults”, especially the section entitled “The study of cults”. If anyone can see a difference between what is described there and Islam I'd like to hear it.

But back to the so-called palestinians. Can I suggest that their origins are the Philistines! There's the similarity of name, of course. But there's also the unremitting hatred, the self-delusion, the paranoia. All hallmarks of immature, defeated losers.

Also explains the Argentine support. Birds of a feather. Add in Argentina's love of Nazi Germany and you can see how it all comes together.
Sep 17th, 2011 - 02:32 pm 0
briton
This will be nothing short of a bombshell for the UN,
I do not believe they will make a judgement,
Rather than pass the buck,
To leave things as they are, is the most acceptable for the moment,
To grant them what they want, may well blow the UN out of the water, and split it permanently, their is nothing to gain at this moment in time but bloodshed and misery,
Just an opinion, but i think the UN, will either pass it over, or use stale mate.
Sep 17th, 2011 - 06:14 pm 0

Read all comments

Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!