Friday, September 09, 2011

Palestine on Its Own

The Palestinian president has insisted that last-ditch diplomatic efforts to avert a collision at the United Nations over the Palestinians' bid for statehood came too late and they would forge ahead despite being "under pressure from the world".

"Whatever the pressures, we're going to the UN to submit our application for the membership. We know that many countries do not agree with us, do not like this idea, but we will go there," Mahmoud Abbas said at his presidential compound in Ramallah.

[...]

"To be frank with you, they came too late. They wasted all the time from the beginning of this year … til today or yesterday, they wasted all this time. Now when they come here to tell us, okay we have this idea or this package and don't go to the UN, we will not accept it."

[...]

Statehood, said Abbas, would give the Palestinians greater leverage in fighting the Israeli occupation. "It means we will be a state under occupation. Israel now says [East Jerusalem and the West Bank] is a disputed area and they can build settlements everywhere. They do not recognise that this is Palestinian territory. When we are a state … we will negotiate accordingly with the Israelis, of course with the support of the UN."

  UK Guardian

And good luck with that. The US will veto the application. But at least we’ll be on record then, and the reality will be official.

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