July 20, 2011

Marwan Barghouti supports Palestinian bid for UN recognition

I just read this in Ha'aretz.
Jailed leader Marwan Barghouti has called on Palestinians to stage mass rallies in September in support of a diplomatic bid to gain UN membership for a state of Palestine.
Barghouti, a figure widely respected among many Palestinians, said taking the statehood quest to the United Nations was part of a new strategy that would open the door to "peaceful, popular resistance".
Barghouti was convicted of murder for his role in attacks on Israelis during the Second Intifada and was sentenced to life in jail by Israel in 2004.

"I call on our people in the homeland and in the diaspora to go out in a peaceful, million-man march during the week of voting in the United Nations in September," Barghouti said in a statement written from his jail cell in Israel.
Well I suppose it would show that lots of Palestinians support the idea but I don't know what the idea itself would achieve and I recently has some difficulty trying to find a Palestinian I know who would want to speak in favour of the UN bid at a public meeting.

But let's see some more from Ha'aretz:
The United States, the main sponsor of the two-decade-old peace process, has objected to the Palestinian diplomatic offensive, instead calling for a resumption of negotiations that were derailed by an impasse over settlement construction in the West Bank. Israel says the Palestinians aim to isolate and delegitimize it.
A U.S. veto at the Security Council is likely to thwart the Palestinian bid for full UN membership for a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
Ok, the great satan's against it as is the little satan but what's their beef?  It might just be the aversion to the very word Palestine. That could be Israel's beef.  I really can't see what the UN's recognition of a powerless state would achieve and for all I know the yanks could be engaging in a double bluff. They might want the UN to bless the efforts of the PA.

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