PLO says global public opinion backs recognising Palestine

A senior Palestinian official said on Thursday that European moves toward recognizing an independent Palestine would bring them in line with global public opinion, ahead of a symbolic British parliament debate on the issue set for Monday.

"International public opinion is way ahead of many governments. There is a strong solidarity movement, there is a strong network of people speaking out when governments are much more timid and reticent," Hanan Ashrawi, an official in the Palestine Liberation Organization told reporters at her office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Palestinians believe Britain bears a unique role in their plight, as it ran a colonial mandate over what is now Israel and Palestinian lands from the end of the First World War, blessing a Jewish homeland among the native Arabs and allowing mass Jewish immigration there, mostly from European countries.

"(There is a) historical responsibility by the British toward Palestine dating back to 1917, and we believe this process of rectification has to start - it is about time," Ashrawi said.