Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian
leader, is prepared to place a formal application for UN membership before
the Security Council next month triggering a major confrontation with
Israel.
If it wins Security Council backing, the Palestinian leadership plans to
present its statehood bid to the UN General Assembly in September, when a
two year plan by Salam Fayyad to build the institutions necessary for a
functioning state reaches fruition.
Mr Obama categorically opposed the Palestinian bid and indicated that the
United States would wield its veto.
Palestinian officials said it would be hypocritical for the West to back the
Fayyad plan but to reject its "logical outcome", especially when
statehood was being conferred on much less developed territories.
"Isn't it shameful to have South Sudan as a state and not Palestine?"
said Mustafa Barghouti, a favourite to become the new Palestinian foreign
minister when a unity government is announced in the next few weeks.
Senior figures in Mr Abbas's secular Fatah party have given warning that the
Palestinian Authority would struggle to justify its policy of seeking
international legitimacy, a course it has struck for two decades, if the
statehood bid was rejected -- leaving non-violent resistance as the only
alternative.
"If the international community fails to pay its dues in September, it
will be extremely hard for any Palestinian administration to argue for
multilateralism in the future," said Husam Zomlot, a senior Fatah
official.
Rejection of the Palestinian bid would trigger a mass campaign of non-violent
resistance, inspired by the Arab Spring, that could severely strain Israel's
44-year occupation of the West Bank.
Earlier this month, Israel faced an unprecedented challenge when 10
Palestinian refugees were killed during protests along its border with
Lebanon and four more died when its defences along the occupied Golan
Heights from Syria were breached.
More protests have been called for Sunday, with refugees threatening to build
a tented protest camp along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
