Palestinians rally for Abbas’s U.N. statehood bid

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Flag-waving Palestinians filled the squares of major West Bank cities on Wednesday to rally behind President Mahmoud Abbas’s bid for statehood recognition at the United Nations despite U.S. and Israeli objections.

“We are asking for the most simple of rights, a state like other nations,” said Sabrina Hussein, 50, carrying the green, red, black and white Palestinian national flag at the main demonstration in Ramallah.

Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank under 1990s interim peace deals, gave school children and civil servants the day off to attend events in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus and Hebron.

A large mockup of a blue chair, symbolizing a seat at the U.N., and giant Palestinian flags hanging from buildings provided a backdrop for the Ramallah rally, where overflow crowds of thousands packed its Manara and Clock squares.

The main venues were far removed from Israeli military checkpoints on the perimeter of the cities and there were no reports of any violence. Palestinian leaders have pledged that demonstrations for statehood would be peaceful.

Later in the day in New York, President Barack Obama was due to meet Abbas to urge him to drop plans to ask the U.N. Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state. Washington says statehood should be achieved through peace talks.

Abbas has said he will present U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with a membership application on Friday. The move requires Security Council approval and the United States, one of five veto-wielding permanent members, says it will block it.

“CRY OF DESPERATION”

At the Ramallah rally, Amina Abdel Jabbar al-Kiswany, a head teacher, said the U.N. bid was a step on the road to statehood, not a solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which direct negotiations have failed to resolve.

“It’s a cry of desperation,” Kiswany said.

In the thick of the crowd, a masked men tried to set a U.S. flag on fire but was dissuaded by another participant who tried to grab it away from him. In the end, the Stars and Stripes was tossed into the crowd, where a man picked it up and walked away with it.

U.S.-brokered peace talks collapsed a year ago after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to extend a 10-month limited moratorium on construction in Jewish settlements in areas Palestinians want for a state.

Netanyahu has called the Palestinian demand of a halt to settlement building an unacceptable precondition and urged Abbas to return to negotiations.

The Israeli leader was due to meet Obama, with whom he has had a strained relationship, later in the day on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

Palestinians hope to establish a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

The Palestinian Authority has held sway only in the West Bank since Hamas Islamists opposed to his peace efforts with Israel seized Gaza in a brief civil war in 2007.

Hamas has dismissed the U.N. bid as a waste of time and there were no rallies in the Mediterranean enclave, where Palestinians argue that Abbas should be devoting his energies to bridging the internal political divide.

Israel cites historical and biblical links to the West Bank, which it calls Judea and Samaria, and to Jerusalem. It claims all of the city as its capital, a status that is not recognized internationally.

Reuters

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8 responses to “Palestinians rally for Abbas’s U.N. statehood bid”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar

    Well, I’m sure no sane person expects Hamas or Hezzy to be in on ‘world security’, so they can forget that one. Many recognize that something needs to be done – but even a seat in the General Assembly is a far reach.
    ” …. a masked men (sic) tried to set a U.S. flag on fire but was dissuaded by another participant …” 
    This is good to see … maybe more people are beginning to think about it all … who knows? Next year could produce something.

  2.  Avatar

    Well, I’m sure no sane person expects Hamas or Hezzy to be in on ‘world security’, so they can forget that one. Many recognize that something needs to be done – but even a seat in the General Assembly is a far reach.
    ” …. a masked men (sic) tried to set a U.S. flag on fire but was dissuaded by another participant …” 
    This is good to see … maybe more people are beginning to think about it all … who knows? Next year could produce something.

  3. Adam Yonatan Ben Yoel Avatar
    Adam Yonatan Ben Yoel

    What needs to be done is to remove the caste that rules Jordan and then for us to be able to negotiate with the new regime over territory.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      Tsk … the King and Queen have been trying to keep the people quiet there, and you want to stir the pot?  😉
      Seems they are ‘adjusting’ anyway, to the wonderful ‘Spring’, and the regime will at least be altered. Would also be better if the West Bank didn’t look so much like a jigsaw puzzle badly forced-together by a petulant child … at least you could draw a line then … although why people want to ‘grab’ bits of rock and ancient olive-orchards is beyond me, when at least there was some shade under the trees. Who’s the idiot who planned that??

  4. What needs to be done is to remove the caste that rules Jordan and then for us to be able to negotiate with the new regime over territory.

    1.  Avatar

      Tsk … the King and Queen have been trying to keep the people quiet there, and you want to stir the pot?  😉
      Seems they are ‘adjusting’ anyway, to the wonderful ‘Spring’ and the regime will at least be altered.Would also be better if the West Bank didn’t look so much like a jigsaw puzzle badly forced-together by a petulant child … at least you could draw a line then … although why people want to ‘grab’ bits of rock and ancient olive-orchards is beyond me, when at least there was some shade under the trees. Who’s the idiot who planned that??

    2.  Avatar

      Tsk … the King and Queen have been trying to keep the people quiet there, and you want to stir the pot?  😉
      Seems they are ‘adjusting’ anyway, to the wonderful ‘Spring’ and the regime will at least be altered.Would also be better if the West Bank didn’t look so much like a jigsaw puzzle badly forced-together by a petulant child … at least you could draw a line then … although why people want to ‘grab’ bits of rock and ancient olive-orchards is beyond me, when at least there was some shade under the trees. Who’s the idiot who planned that??

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