May 22 - Palestinians pledge to stick to UN statehood plan

Article: Israel And The Last Days
 

The Palestinians will keep up their campaign to win UN endorsement for a unilaterally declared state despite US opposition, a senior Palestinian official has said. "Now that (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu has proved that he rejects the peace process, there is no doubt that we shall continue with the strategic objective of turning to the United Nations in September," Nabil Shaath, a senior member of the Fatah movement, told AFP late on Saturday. Shaath, a former minister, said that the goal of the Palestinians is to win recognition by the world body of their promised state "in the 1967 borders," referring to the lines that existed before that year's Six Day War. That would mean a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Israeli-annexed Arab east Jerusalem. In a keynote policy speech in Washington on Thursday, US President Barack Obama called for a Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines but said the Palestinian bid for UN recognition would not bring them sovereignty. Shortly before flying to Washington for talks with Obama, Netanyahu issued a scathing rejection of the 1967 frontiers as "indefensible." He demanded that Obama reaffirm then-president George W. Bush's 2004 promise that the borders of a future Palestinian state would have to recognize the mushrooming of Israeli settlements. An aide to Palestinian president and Fatah head Mahmud Abbas described Netanyahu's position as "an official rejection of Mr. Obama's initiative, of international legitimacy and of international law.