Mahmoud Abbas' bold bid for U.N recognition of Palestinian statehood is doomed to fail but has won him admiration at home and re-energised international efforts to seek a negotiated settlement.
Thousands of jubilant, flag-waving Palestinians watching on outdoor screens across the West Bank, cheered on their president on Friday as he submitted his historic request for a U.N. nod. In Nablus, the crowd roared ecstatically when Mr. Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, told the U.N General Assembly that he had submitted the request for full U.N. membership.
In New York, Mr. Abbas' speech was interrupted repeatedly by thunderous applause as he told the largely sympathetic gathering of world leaders that the Palestinians had had enough of negotiations that have foundered for nearly two decades and yielded few tangible results for the millions who live under Israeli occupation.
The new Palestine he envisioned would be in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in 1967.
“It is a moment of truth and my people are waiting to hear the answer of the world,” Mr. Abbas said. “At a time when the Arab peoples affirm their quest for democracy the Arab Spring the time is now for the Palestinian Spring, the time for independence.”
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon referred the statehood request to the Security Council, where U.S. opposition is expected to shoot it down. The Security Council will meet on Monday to examine the Palestinian membership request.
Shortly after Mr. Abbas submitted his formal application, international mediators called on Israelis and Palestinians to return to long-stalled negotiations and reach an agreement no later than next year. The Quartet of Middle East negotiators — the U.S., European Union, U.N. and Russia — urged both parties to draw up an agenda for peace talks within a month and produce comprehensive proposals on territory and security within three months. They would like to see a final deal by the end of next year.
Mr. Abbas' determination to press ahead with the statehood application appeared to be reflected in the Quartet's statement, which was radically different from what diplomats had been hoping to draft. U.S. and European officials had been trying to craft a statement that would have outlined parameters of the negotiations, including a reference to borders being based on the pre-war lines and affirm Israel's identity as a Jewish state something the Palestinians have resisted.
Instead, the Quartet focused on proposing deadlines for steps the two sides should take.
Keywords: Palestinian statehood, Mahmoud Abbas, U.N recognition, Abbas speech
Anil, That was a brilliant write up on the conflict, kudos to you. However If logic has any part to play in the resolution of such long standing geo-political issues, the world would have been free of any strife long ago. Unfortunately issues like this never follow logic, because logic is uniform wherever it is applied. Can the same logic be applied to the contentious land related issues in and around our country? From the dawn of human civilisation the mighty dictate terms to the weak and it will definitely be that way atleast for some more time to come.
To go deep into Israel-Palestine conflict we need to know what happened when and how.The beginning was League of nations'1917 mandate to British government to find a homeland for jews in Palestine,a homeland for Arab Muslims for the last thousand years.The following chronology of events is an exercise to get at the root of present conflict:
Judea,the ancient homeland for jews, was conquered by the Romans a few thousand years back and renamed it as Palestine.Later Arabs conquered Palestine and were living there for more than thousand years. In 1917 League of Nations empowered Britain to find a homeland for jews in Palestine .Jews in thousands started migrating to palestine.Resident Arabs led by Al Husseini rose in revolt against jewish migration to their homeland. A civil war followed. Jews in millions were annihilited by Nazis in infamous 'Holocaust' in Germany during the reign of world's most hated and dreaded Dictator Adolf Hitler.
Jews in hundreds of thousands again started migrating to palestine after United nations adopted resolution 181 in 1948 dividing palestine into 2 states.One for jews and the other for Arabs. With the intention of forcefully occupying whole of Palestine, Zionists raised a private army with David Ben Gurion at its head.After general election in 1948 Zionist government led by David Ben Gurion annexed 70% of Palestinian land and chased away 726000 arabs from their homeland. In 1967 in a 6 day war Israel annexed further 22000 sq.miles in Gaza and established settlements for 220000 jews there.
About 4 million Palestenian refugees at present are languishing in slums of neighbouring Arab countries.Though United Nations General Assembly resolution i94 passed in 1948 says that the Arabs so driven out have a right to return to their homeland state of Israel . But Israel resisted inflow of Arabs to Israel as they thought jews would be a minority community if the inflow continued.
The present conflict veers round this problem and outgoing US president Bush backed Israel's effort to kill palestanians in thousands and drive away as many palestanians as possible from Gaza christening Hamas a 'terrorist outfit'.In view of the facts stated above granting statehood to Palestine would be a logical. conclusion.
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