Palestinians to demand UN set timeline for 'end of occupation'
Palestinian President Abbas to lobby UN to set a timeframe for Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank ahead of the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of UN General Assembly.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that he will launch a bid at the United Nations on Friday to set a timeline for the "end of the Israeli occupation," Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.
Abbas is set to address the UN at 7 pm (noon EST) amid growing anger within the Palestinian street that the Palestinian Authority which he leads has failed to make substantial gains regarding the Palestinian's national ambitions; anger further exacerbated by Operation Protective Edge and ongoing security cooperation with Israel.
According to Ma'an, Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian peace negotiator, said that Palestinian leadership have lost faith in the US-led talks, the last round of which ended uneventfully in April, and despite US Secretary of State John Kerry's disapproval have decided to go ahead with the UN bid.
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According to Israel Radio, Abbas met with Kerry last week and told him about the plan. Kerry expressed his disapproval, to which Abbas responded that if the US uses its veto power in the Security Council to shoot down the initiative, then the Palestinians would move to join over 500 international bodies, including the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
The US has urged Abbas not to turn to the Security Council, but has not offered an alternative, a Palestinian official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to discuss internal deliberations with the media said last week.
Erekat confirmed for Ma'an that the Palestinians – whom currently enjoy the status of observer non-member state in the UN - will propose the resolution on Friday to end the occupation and implement all previous international decisions regarding Israel and Palestine.
Erekat said that Riyadh Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the UN, expects that the application would take 2-3 weeks until it reaches the "blueprint" stage..
Abbas adviser Nabil Abu Rdeneh has said in the past that the Palestinian leader would present a new strategy in his UN speech. In recent weeks, Abbas and his aides have hinted at the content of the proposal, according to which Abbas would ask the UN Security Council to issue a binding resolution, with a three-year deadline for ending Israel's occupation.
'End occupation, make peace'
"Prime Minister Netanyahu: End the occupation, make peace," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday ahead of the UN General Assembly, AFP reported.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is also set to travel to the UN as well, where he will deliver a speech in the general assembly, and then meet with US President Obama to discuss the Islamic State terror group. Israeli officials say the Palestinian issue will play a peripheral role in this year's UN meet, in light of the chaos in Syria and Iraq.
Nonetheless, speaking at the Cooper Union hall, Abbas said: "The international community has the responsibility to protect our people, living under the terror of settlers, an occupying army," AFP reported.
"We cannot understand how the Israeli government can be so misguided as to fail to understand that the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza that killed thousands of women and children only sowed more hate," Abbas reportedly said, according to AFP.
"This week I will propose to the United Nations a new timetable for peace talks," Abbas said, AFP reported.
In an interview with Palestinian TV last month, Abbas said it should only take "half an hour or an hour" to delineate the borders of a Palestinian state, since the United States agreed they should be based on the 1967 borders that existed before the war in which Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
