The Palestinians have officially launched their campaign to join the United Nations as a full member state, saying they will stage a series of peaceful events in the run-up to the annual gathering of the UN General Assembly later this month.
The launch of the campaign, dubbed "National Campaign for Palestine: state 194", is part of the build-up to 20 September, when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to submit the formal membership request.
The Press Association reported that about 100 Palestinian officials and activists gathered at the UN offices in Ramallah for a short ceremony, where they announced their plans in a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The letter urges Mr Ban to add his "moral voice in support of the Palestinian people".
The letter was handed over by Latifa Abu Hmeid, a 70-year-old woman who lost one son in fighting with Israel and has seven other sons in Israeli prisons because of alleged militant activities. Officials said Ms Abu Hmeid was selected to deliver the document because her personal story reflects the plight of the Palestinians. A resident of a West Bank refugee camp, her house has twice been demolished by Israeli authorities as punishment for her sons' activities, they said.
"Today we began our campaign on the ground and we chose the UN building because it represents the United Nations and we expect them to respond to our demands," Ahmed Assaf, the campaign's coordinator, told AFP.
"We are no less important than the other 193 states in the United Nations and our message will ask for our state to be 194."
A copy of the letter shown to AFP said the campaign would continue "until the state of Palestine is finally admitted as member state number 194."
"Your excellency, the Palestinian people at home and in the diaspora, particularly those in refugee camps who were uprooted from their homeland and dispossessed 63 years ago, hope that your excellency will stand by justice and do right by our people," the letter said.
"The admission of the state of Palestine to the UN is an important step towards ending the occupation and achieving Palestinian independence and realising a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East," it continued.
We hope that you will join the international consensus and support the Palestinian bid for its long overdue recognition." The letter was delivered to Pascal Soto, head of the UN office in Ramallah, AFP reported.
"I received the letter and I will send it to the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon," he said. "It will go today, they are six hours behind us, so they will receive it in the morning their time."
Earlier, U.S. Middle East envoy David Hale on Wednesday delivered a formal message from Washington to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, asking the Palestinians not to unilaterally declare statehood at the U.N. General Assembly later this month, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported Wednesday.
Abbas rejected the request, stressing that the Palestinian bid for statehood does not contradict efforts to resume peace talks, but added that it will put an end to the impasse that, according to the WAFA report, "resulted from Israeli intransigence."
During the meeting in Ramallah, Abbas also met with national security advisor for the Middle East, Dennis Ross, and U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem Daniel Rubinstein. Hale and Ross are visiting the Palestinian Authority as part of U.S. efforts to convince the Palestinians to abandon their plan to go to the U.N.
Commenting on the meeting Wednesday, chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said, "At the moment our position remains unchanged and we reject the American request." He stressed that his conversation with Hale did not include any threats of economic sanctions against the Palestinian Authority if it does not agree to the American appeals.
Meanwhile, a senior official in Ramallah told Arab media outlets that the Palestinian Authority is weighing the option of abandoning its plan to turn to the U.N. Security Council, instead taking its statehood bid only to the General Assembly due to an expected U.S. veto of the plan.
At the same time, the new U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Daniel Shapiro, hinted Wednesday that the Obama Administration has been preparing for the day after the U.N. vote on Palestinian statehood.
The U.S. will have to confront challenges emanating from the U.S. opposition to the possible Palestinian declaration of statehood, Shapiro said at a dinner hosted in his honor by the Jewish Policy Center in Jerusalem.
"While we are trying to convince Palestinians not to go to the United Nations, we are working with our partners in the Quartet and with both sides to try and return to negotiations," he added.
Shapiro's comments echo Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's call to Abbas on Wednesday to return to the negotiating table.
"Peace is reached through direct negotiations between the parties and not through international decrees," Netanyahu said. "Peace will be achieved only with a strong Israel that believes in the justice of its cause. In this region, peace is not made with the weak and submissive. Peace is made with a strong and proud Israel."
Report: Representatives holding secret meetings over Israeli proposal
As Western diplomats continue their efforts to bring both sides back to the negotiating table, Israeli and Palestinian representatives have reportedly been engaged in secret meetings for the past several months over an Israeli proposal to postpone recognition of statehood for at least a year while final status negotiations start immediately. The Palestinians are reportedly considering the proposal.
According to a report Wednesday in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida, officials in Ramallah said the Israeli proposal was presented to Abbas' representatives within the framework of secret talks held in various Arab and European countries.
The report also said that the secret negotiations also included meetings between Abbas and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, during which they discussed the possibility of convening a formal meeting between the Palestinian Authority president and Netanyahu.
