Palestinians Officially Launch Bid for Statehood
The Palestinian Authority on Thursday officially launched its campaign to join the United Nations as a full member state, a move it hopes to achieve within just a few weeks.
In a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s Ramallah office, Palestinian officials urged the leader of the international community to “exert all possible efforts toward the achievement of the Palestinian people’s just demands.”
The letter said the campaign would include a series of peaceful events leading up to the September 21 opening of the UN General Assembly. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will address the assembly two days later, according to the officials.
The official launch of the Palestinian campaign was announced amid reported U.S. Republican attempts to pressure U.S. President Barack Obama into thwarting the Palestinian move.
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a conservative who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said earlier Wednesday that Obama should say clearly and publicly the United States will use its veto on the Security Council to block any Palestinian bid to gain UN membership.
Obama’s administration has been making diplomatic moves to try to head off the Palestinian plan to gain statehood recognition at the UN General Assembly.
For more, go to Haaretz.com
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
