A people can’t be displaced forever

“Abbas defies US with formal call for Palestinian recognition by UN

Palestinian leader appeals to conscience of world as Netanyahu rejects claim problem lies with Israel

Chris McGreal in New York

guardian.co.uk, Friday 23 September 2011 14.48 EDT

Mahmoud Abbas has formally asked the United Nations to recognise a Palestinian state, defying intense US pressure to abandon the move with a powerful appeal to the conscience of the world to recognise that the Palestinian people are entitled to their own "Arab spring".

Abbas said in a speech to the UN general assembly on Friday, greeted with extended clapping and cheers, that his request for recognition of a Palestinian state on land occupied by Israel since 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital came because of the failure of nearly two decades of peace talks. He blamed that failure on Israel, particularly its continued expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territory.

"I do not believe that anyone with a shred of conscience can reject our application for a full membership of the United Nations and our admission as a full member state," he said. "At a time when the Arab people affirm their quest for democracy – the Arab spring – the time is now for the Palestinian spring, the time for independence.

"It is a moment of truth and my people are waiting to hear the answer of the world. Will it allow Israel to continue its occupation, the only occupation in the world?"

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, responded in his speech by saying he sought a "just and lasting peace" with the Palestinians. He attacked the UN as the "theatre of the absurd". "Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon chairs the UN security council. A terror organisation presides over the body entrusted with world security. You couldn't make this stuff up," he said. Netanyahu dismissed Abbas's assertion that he is desperate for a negotiated settlement. "The Palestinians want a state without peace," he said. "You shouldn't let that happen."

Abbas submitted the request for the security council to admit Palestine as a full member state to the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, shortly before his speech. But the security council is unlikely to act soon, in part because the Palestinian leader has privately agreed for a vote to be deferred while fresh attempts are made to revive the peace process.

Abbas resisted intense pressure by the US, which said it would veto the application, not to submit the request. Washington, Paris and London were keen to avoid a vote that would embarrass them in the rest of theMiddle East.

But the Palestinian leader said he had come to the UN because the existing American-dominated peace process to end the "colonial military occupation" had failed and a new approach was required.

"It is neither possible, nor practical, nor acceptable to return to conducting business as usual, as if everything is fine," he said. Abbas said that Palestinian efforts to reach an agreement had been "repeatedly smashed against the rock of the positions of the Israeli government". In particular, he blamed the continued construction of Jewish settlements, which have doubled in size since the 1993 Oslo peace accords.

"The occupation is racing against time to redraw the borders on our land according to what it wants and to impose a fait accompli on the ground that changes the realities and that is undermining the realistic potential for the existence of the state of Palestine," he said.

"This policy will destroy the chances of achieving a two-state solution upon which there is international consensus, and here I caution aloud: this settlement policy threatens to also undermine the structures of the Palestinian Authority and even end its existence."”