Palestinians to make statehood bid at UN Skip to main content

Palestinians to make statehood bid at UN

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is due to submit his bid to the UN for recognition of a Palestinian state.
He is expected to present a letter in the next few hours requesting admission to the UN shortly before addressing the General Assembly to argue the case.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to speak soon after, and is expected to denounce the move.
Israel and the US oppose it, saying a Palestinian state can only be achieved through talks with Israel.
President Barack Obama told Mr Abbas on Thursday that the US will use its UN Security Council veto to block the move, but Mr Abbas vowed to press ahead with the bid.
Meanwhile in the West Bank, Palestinians are preparing for mass rallies to coincide with the submission of the bid.
Giant TV screens have been set up in several cities so that people can watch Mr Abbas's General Assembly speech, expected at 16:30 GMT.
"I am going to listen to Abbas's speech because it will tell us our future and our destiny, and we are expecting so much from him, to declare our state," Khalil Jaberi, a 21-year-old university student in the city of Hebron, told the Associated Press news agency.
Mr Abbas has called for peaceful marches in support of his initiative, but some clashes were reported:
  • One Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops during clashes in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, Palestinian sources say
  • At the Qalandiya checkpoint, Israeli troops fired tear gas on stone-throwing Palestinian youths
  • In the village of Nabi Saleh, protesters burned Israeli flags and pictures of President Obama
The process begins with Mr Abbas presenting a written request for UN recognition of the Palestinian territories as a state to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
If Mr Ban decides the application is in order, the Security Council will examine it and vote on it. In order to pass, it would need the backing of nine out of 15 council members, with no vetoes from the permanent members.

Middle East viewpoints

Analyst Yezid Sayigh argues that US and Israeli policies have forced the Palestinians to resort to requesting full UN membership.
Israeli commentator Yossi Klein Halevi argues that the Palestinians need to convince the Israelis that any state would not be a threat.
A Security Council vote could take weeks to come about and the US may not even need to exercise its veto - Washington and Israel have been lobbying council members to either vote against the Palestinian plan or abstain.
But the Palestinians' application has given them some political initiative, putting their case for independence back on the international agenda in a much more urgent way than it was before, says the BBC's Middle East analyst Jeremy Bowen.
The move has focused diplomatic minds on restarting the stalled peace talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis, which broke down a year ago.
On Wednesday, Mr Obama told the General Assembly: "Ultimately, it is Israelis and Palestinians - not us - who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them: on borders and security; on refugees and Jerusalem."
Egyptian foreign minister: "Another US veto wouldn't be helpful, it could inflame the sentiments on the streets"
It is politically embarrassing abroad for Mr Obama to be trying so hard to block the Palestinian application while the US praises the changes sweeping the Arab world, says our Middle East analyst.
But with a re-election campaign to fight, the president needs the votes of Israel's supporters in the US, our analyst says.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged a compromise, suggesting the General Assembly give the Palestinians enhanced status as a non-member state to allow a clear timeline for talks - a month to start negotiations, six months to deal with borders and security and a year to finalise a "definitive agreement".

Palestinian UN membership bid

  • Palestinians currently have permanent observer entity status at the UN
  • They are represented by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)
  • Officials now want an upgrade so a state of Palestine has full member status at the UN
  • They seek recognition on 1967 borders - in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza
  • Enhanced observer member status could be an interim option
A vote on enhanced status - enjoyed by others such as the Vatican - would not require a Security Council recommendation but a simple majority in the General Assembly, where no veto is possible.
Currently the Palestinians have observer status at the UN.
The "Quartet" of US, European, Russian and UN mediators has been working on reaching a framework agreement to restart talks, based on Mr Obama's vision of borders fashioned from Israel's pre-1967 boundary, with agreed land swaps.
Palestinians say their bid for statehood has been inspired by the Arab Spring, and is the result of years of failed peace talks.
While UN recognition would have largely symbolic value, the Palestinians argue it would strengthen their hand in peace talks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15033357
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chronology of the Press in Burma

1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern  Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period.     March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper,  The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s  Hsa-tu-gaw  (the  Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of  Sgaw ,  is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian  Dhamma  Thadinsa  (the  Religious Herald ), in Moulmein. Supposedly the first Burmese-language newspaper, it continued up until the first year of the second Angl
Post a Comment
Read more

ARSA claims ambush on Myanmar security forces

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Sunday claimed responsibility for an ambush on Myanmar security forces that left several wounded in northern Rakhine state, the first attack in weeks in a region gutted by violence. Rakhine was plunged into turmoil last August, when a series of ARSA raids prompted a military backlash so brutal the UN says it likely amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The army campaign sent some 650,000 Rohingya fleeing for Bangladesh, where refugees have given harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces and vigilantes. Myanmar's military, which tightly controls information about Rakhine, denies any abuses and insists the crackdown was a proportionate response to crush the "terrorist" threat. ARSA have launched few attacks in recent months.  But the army reported that "about ten" Rohingya terrorists ambushed a car with hand-made mines and gunfire on Friday morning
Post a Comment
Read more

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do
1 comment
Read more