MAHMOUD ABBAS has formally asked the United Nations to recognise a Palestinian state, defying intense US pressure to abandon the move with a powerful appeal to the conscience of the world to recognise that the Palestinian people are entitled to their own “Arab Spring”.
In a speech to the UN general assembly yesterday, greeted with extended clapping and cheers, Mr Abbas said his request for recognition of a Palestinian state on land occupied by Israel since 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital came because of the failure of nearly two decades of peace talks.
He blamed that failure on Israel, particularly its continued expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territory.
“I do not believe that anyone with a shred of conscience can reject our application for a full membership of the United Nations and our admission as a full member state,” he said.
“At a time when the Arab people affirm their quest for democracy – the Arab Spring – the time is now for the Palestinian spring, the time for independence.
“It is a moment of truth and my people are waiting to hear the answer of the world. Will it allow Israel to continue its occupation, the only occupation in the world?”
The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, responded in his speech by saying he sought a “just and lasting peace” with the Palestinians.
He attacked the UN as the “theatre of the absurd”. “Hizbullah-controlled Lebanon chairs the UN security council. A terror organisation presides over the body entrusted with world security. You couldn’t make this stuff up,” he said.
Mr Netanyahu dismissed Mr Abbas’s assertion that he is desperate for a negotiated settlement. “The Palestinians want a state without peace,” he said. “You shouldn’t let that happen.”
Mr Abbas submitted the request for the security council to admit Palestine as a full member state to the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, shortly before his speech. But the security council is unlikely to act soon, in part because the Palestinian leader has privately agreed for a vote to be deferred while fresh attempts are made to revive the peace process.
Mr Abbas resisted intense pressure by the US, which said it would veto the application, not to submit the request.
Washington, Paris and London were keen to avoid a vote that would embarrass them in the rest of the Middle East.
But the Palestinian leader said he had come to the UN because the existing American-dominated peace process to end the “colonial military occupation” had failed and a new approach was required.
“It is neither possible, nor practical, nor acceptable to return to conducting business as usual, as if everything is fine,” he said.
Mr Abbas said that Palestinian efforts to reach an agreement had been “repeatedly smashed against the rock of the positions of the Israeli government”. In particular, he blamed the continued construction of Jewish settlements, which have doubled in size since the 1993 Oslo peace accords.
In an uncompromising speech, Mr Netanyahu said calls for the Jewish state to make a sweeping peace offer had been answered, only to be met with rejection and terrorist attacks by the Palestinians.
He said that Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, and the closure of its settlements there, had brought not peace but war. “The Palestinians should first make peace with Israel and then get their state.” – (Guardian service)
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore said yesterday that Ireland was in favour of the Palestinian position.
“Ireland has consistently supported the establishment of a Palestinian state and therefore I expect that when the issue, if it does come to a vote at the general assembly, that we will be consistent with that.
“If the resolution is a resolution which is for observer state status that is something that we can support, but again we have to see the exact terms of the resolution.”