Posts tagged palestinian authority
Abbas Names September 27 As The Date For Palestinian UN Statehood Bid
Sep 10th
RELATED STORY: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad To Address UN On Yom Kippur
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has named a date for the PA’s next statehood bid. Abbas said Saturday that he will ask the UN General Assembly to recognize a “state of Palestine” on September 27.
The date is just over one year after Abbas’ first statehood bid, in which the PA sought recognition of statehood from the Security Council. It will come one day after Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.
His appeal to the General Assembly is considered far more likely to yield success. The Security Council bid was met by a lack of support from the United States and from European countries, but in the General Assembly Abbas enjoys a virtually guaranteed majority.
“There are 133 countries that now recognize us as a state with east Jerusalem as its capital, and where we have embassies hoisting the Palestinian flag,” Abbas proclaimed Saturday, AFP reports.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon previously admitted that the PA enjoys an automatic majority in the General Assembly, and said the Foreign Ministry’s plan is to focus on maintaining objection to the unilateral statehood bid among Western democracies. If Abbas wins a majority without winning a majority of democracies, the vote will lack meaning, he argued.
Likud MK Danny Danon has called to respond to Abbas’ latest unilateral move by unilaterally annexing Judea and Samaria. “We need to say clearly that if they want to start a one-sided process, we’ll answer them in their own language,” he declared. Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations has predicted that the PA will win non-member observer status as it hopes, but noted that the upgrade in status “will change nothing on the ground.” source – Israel National News
Roman Catholic Church Sides With UNESCO And Palestine Against Israel
Jul 3rd
“Diplomatic Victory” of PA according to the RCC
“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 12:3
The Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land on Monday hailed the granting by UNESCO of world heritage status to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, AFP reported.
The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Israel
The report said the Roman Catholic Church said the UNESCO decision was a “diplomatic victory” for the Palestinian Authority, but it also called on the PA to respect existing arrangements dividing care of the site between the Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches.
“There is an internal regulation, the status quo, which regulates the relations between the various Christian communities and their rights and duties in relation to the operation and maintenance of the (Church of the) Nativity,” AFP quoted a statement from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. “”It is desirable that UNESCO and the Palestinian Authority respect this and intervene only in exceptional cases.”
On Friday, UNESCO’s World Heritage committee approved a Palestinian Authority bid to place the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on its list of sites of World Heritage in Danger. The 21-member committee, meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, voted 13-6 to include the church and pilgrimage route on its list of sites. There were two abstentions.
Dangerously mixing politics and culture
Israel angrily denounced the vote. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ilana Stein said the decision “has turned UNESCO into a theater of the absurd.”
“This is a sad day for the World Heritage Committee,” she said. The move was seen by some nations as dangerously mixing politics and culture.
The drive to get the church quickly recognized as a World Heritage site is part of the PA’s bid to win international recognition.
“The fact that the Palestinian Authority worked for this (UNESCO) declaration represents a diplomatic victory,” the patriarchate said, according to AFP. “Bethlehem is part of the Palestinian territories, so it was for the Palestinian Authority a right and indeed a duty.”
The application cited lack of regular restoration of the church due to the political situation since 1967, when Israel liberated Judea and Samaria (Yehuda and Shomron) during the Six Day War. The application also cited difficulties procuring equipment because of lack of free movement imposed by Israeli forces.
The application to place the Church on the World Heritage list shows the PA plans to put forward other sites for prestigious World Heritage recognition, eventually linking various landmarks to the life of Jesus.
In a controversial decision, UNESCO accepted the PA as a member last October, after 107 members voted in favor of the motion. Only 14 nations voted against the PA, including the United States, Canada, Germany and Israel.
The move prompted the United States to cut off funding to the organization, due to a longstanding law that prohibits U.S. support for any United Nations-affiliated body that accepts Palestinian Authority membership.
The organization was later forced to temporarily suspend new welfare programs in third world countries due to the large hole in its budget created by the loss of U.S. funds, so that much suffering of those whom UNESCO is intended to benefit was caused by the move.
The agency recently claimed that the Matriarch Rachel’s Tomb and the Tomb of the Patriarchs [Me'arat Hamachpela, the Patriarch's Cave] are not exclusively Jewish sites and also belong to Christians and Muslims. – Source – IsraelNationalNews
Iran Flies Thousands Of Pro-Palestinian Activists To Syria As Israel Fortifies Borders
Mar 28th
Global March to Jerusalem
Israel boosted its Syrian and Lebanese border units as special flights carrying thousands of pro-Palestinian activists from Tehran touched down in Damascus Tuesday, March 27 for the international Global March to Jerusalem Friday, March 30.
GMJ organizers hypocritically claim their planned march is a nonviolent action. In fact, the march is a blatant provocation for violence. - standwithus.com
Before taking off, they were split into small groups and tutored by Iranian Al Qods Brigades officers in tactics for breaching Israeli border barriers, bursting through and challenging the Israeli military forces defending the border.
On arrival in Damascus, one group of activists was sent by special bus to Lebanon, where Hizballah officers stood by to lead them to villages close to the Israeli frontier; a second is assigned to face Israeli lines on the Golan.
These anti-Israeli activists from several countries are being planted at strategic points to carry out the plan hatched together by Iran, Syria and Hizballah to ignite Israel’s two northern borders in solidarity with the annual Israeli-Arab Earth Day next Friday.
Earlier reports from Damascus that the demonstrators would keep the Quneitra sector of the Golan and the Lebanese Beaufort were meant to put the Israeli command off its stroke by disguising the real scope of their plans and their objective: a mass assault on Israeli borders. They are programmed to coincide with the outbreaks the Palestinian Authority is preparing for Jerusalem and the West Bank and Israeli-Arab disturbances inside Israel – all on the same day, as DEBKAfile reported earlier Tuesday.
The Palestinian extremists of the Gaza Strip will certainly not stand aloof. source – DEBKA
International Arab and Muslim Conference to “Defend” Jerusalem Against Israel Opens
Feb 27th
The battle for Jerusalem begins
“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah [and] against Jerusalem.” Zechariah 12:2
The word JERUSALEM appears in the King James Bible 767 times. It shows over and over again that it belongs to God, who has given it to the Jews forever. The bible also shows that Jerusalem will be in the eye of the storm in the last days. Welcome to the last days.
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said the Palestinian leader will deliver an “important speech on the dangers Jerusalem is exposed to and the importance of Arab and Islamic support for the preservation of the holy city’s Arab character.”
From The Blaze: There have been marches, sermons, protest stunts and even vandalism aimed at undercutting Judaism’s links to Jerusalem and Israel’s sovereignty over the city. This weekend, a conference opens in Qatar to “defend” Jerusalem’s Arab status.
The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, opened the “International Conference for the Defense of Occupied Jerusalem” Sunday where an estimated 350 religious and political leaders from 60 countries are attending. Speakers include Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby, Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, and United Nations Mideast Peace Process Coordinator Robert Serry.
The Associated Press reports the Qatari ruler said in his opening remarks that the Arab identity in Jerusalem is threatened by Israeli expansion around the city. He also urged a U.N.-backed investigation into Israeli settlements and Israeli actions in Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War. Both Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital.
Israeli Arab members of Knesset are also participating in the conference condemning Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem, the same city in which they serve and from whose government they collect their salaries. That they can travel to a conference hostile to the country where they are lawmakers and exercise their free speech provides counterpoint to the argument that Israel is an “apartheid” state as many pro-Palestinian activists claim. This comes as “Israel Apartheid Week” begins on U.S. campuses Monday.
The independent Palestinian news agency Ma’an reports the Jerusalem conference participants will:
…tackle Israel’s plans to “forge” the history of the holy city in addition to what they termed as ongoing violations of human rights committed against the Palestinian population, historic sites, cemeteries and Islamic heritage.
Speakers are expected to focus on the needed procedures to protect Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in light of the ongoing assaults by Israeli rightists and “Judaisation” efforts by the Israeli government.
Sessions at the two-day conference include “Jerusalem and International Law,” “History of Jerusalem,” “Jerusalem and Settlements” and “Israeli Violations.” The Qatar Tribune reports the international law session aims at “proving the illegality of the Israeli practices and violations in Jerusalem.”
“History of Jerusalem” will examine “how despite archaeological counterfeiting meant to prove the Israeli claim of historic right of Jews in Jerusalem remains weak.”
Qatar Tribune reports:
‘Jerusalem and Settlements’ deals with procedures for the systematic intensification of settlement and land confiscation in East Jerusalem , as well as the changes in their demography from 1967 to 2020, by which Israel aims to the establish Greater Jerusalem by expulsion and the displacement of the Arab population from East Jerusalem. It will also deliberate on the ways to rescue Jerusalem, the Arab vision against the Israeli plan – for the future of Jerusalem in 2020, which will depend on the development plans for various sectors to strengthen the steadfastness of Jerusalemites, and to emphasise the central role of Jerusalem in the Palestinian socio-political life.
Israeli Arab Member of Knesset Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List-Ta’al) who is traveling to the conference said, “The Arab world is committed to support the residents of al-Quds [Jerusalem] and galvanize the international community against the growing (Jewish) settlement of east Jerusalem, which is aimed at Judaizing the city that was conquered in 1967.”
According to Ynet, Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said the Palestinian leader will deliver an “important speech on the dangers Jerusalem is exposed to and the importance of Arab and Islamic support for the preservation of the holy city’s Arab character.” source – The Blaze
Abbas Says Palestinians Will Demand ‘Full United Nations Membership’ Next Week
Sep 16th
Dramatic speech in Ramallah
Palestinian leader says PA to proceed with UN bid in September because President Obama endorsed Palestinian state; ‘I’m going to the UN in order to demand our legitimate rights and secure full membership,’ he says.
Listening to historic speech (Photo: Reuters)
The Palestinian Authority will be seeking full United Nations membership in its statehood bid later this month, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas said Friday.
“I’m going to the UN in order to demand our legitimate rights and secure full membership for the state of Palestine,” the Palestinian president said in Ramallah. “We hope to secure full membership.”
We are the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and we intend to keep going until we secure full independence, he said.
“We are going to the Security Council,” Abbas added, but then made it clear that “all options are open” and that a final decision has not been made yet.
Abbas said the Palestinians will be aiming to “secure independence in the 1967 borders and its holy capital, Jerusalem.” He also urged his countrymen to avoid violence, saying “we must avoid force.”
Turning his attention to Israel, the Palestinian leader slammed the Jewish state for what he claimed was its failure to advance the peace process. He said that the refugee problem needs to be resolved, charging that the Israeli government only wants negotiations for the sake of negotiations.
Abbas added that the Palestinians are proceeding with their United Nations statehood bid in September because US President Barack Obama said previously he wanted to see a Palestinian state. source – YNet
