Israel warns against Palestinian U.N. bid

By Oren Dorell and Michele Chabin USA TODAY | USATODAY

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Israelis say a Palestinian appeal to the United Nations on Thursday to become a non-member state will make peace less likely, and some Palestinians have reservations, too.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to ask the U.N. General Assembly to elevate the Palestinian Authority from its status to a non-voting state for the West Bank and Gaza. Currently the Palestinian Authority has the status of U.N. observer.

Despite appeals to postpone the request, which the United States says will only make negotiations for a permanent state less likely to happen, Abbas said he was going forward.

"If the Israeli authorities want to threaten my life, they can," Abbas said according to Palestinian news agency Ma'an. "The whole world realizes that the Palestinian Authority, with all its political and security services, and administrative bodies, has been ready to upgrade its status for six years."

The Israeli government did not threaten Abbas' life, but said said that peace is only achieved through negotiations, and not by unilateral declarations that do not take into consideration Israel security needs.

"Israel's hand is always extended in peace, but a Palestinian state will not be established without recognition of the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, without an end-of-conflict declaration, and without true security arrangements that will protect Israel and its citizens," he said Thursday.

Ahead of the vote, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch filed an amendment to a defense bill that would eliminate funding for the United Nations if the General Assembly changes Palestine's status.

"Increasing the Palestinians' role in the United Nations is absolutely the wrong approach, especially in light of recent military developments in the Middle East," he said in a statement. "Israel is one of America's closest allies, and any movement to strengthen one of its fiercest enemies must not be tolerated."

Khalil Ebed Allah, 57, who lives in the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, worries that Israel, which gives the Palestinian Authority a percentage of taxes Palestinian workers pay to Israel, will keep its promise to withhold their money if the United Nations upgrades the Palestinians' status.

"There could be American sanctions, too," Allah said nervously.

Israel and the United States are concerned that the Palestinians are trying to create a state without negotiating a lasting peace with Israel and solving once and for all the issues that have prevented a resolution to the conflict.

Palestinians are "trying to grab statehood without having to compromise with Israel," said David Weinberg, director of public affairs at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, a think-tank in Israel.

Rather than leading to a Palestinian state or improving the prospects for negotiations with Israel, the bid will do the opposite, Weinberg said. "It will harden positions on all sides and force Israel to take actions against Abbas' authority that will set any chances of real peace emerging back for years."

Among the issues to be decided are the status of Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians claim for a capital, the details of borders and security, mutual recognition and refugee claims.

Palestinian leaders are pressing ahead, arguing that improving their status at the United Nations will give them better bargaining power against Israel, which they say has been stalling on negotiations while expanding settlements on land Palestinians want for a state.

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior official of the Palestine Liberation Organization and a former peace negotiator, said upgrading Palestinian status in the United Nations from observer to non-member state status will "enshrine our right to self-determination and statehood" and "help prevent Israel from destroying the chances for peace."

She said Israel is working against peace by annexing Jerusalem and building a security barrier on land that should belong in a Palestinian state.

The world must move quickly, "unless there are no more chances of peace," she said.

Unlike Abbas' failed attempt at gaining full state recognition in 2011, Thursday's measure does not require Security Council approval or risk a U.S. veto.

Many U.N. countries are likely to agree to the Palestinian request, including France, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway, according to Israeli news outlet Ynet News. The United States sees it as the wrong move, according to the State Department.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says U.N. recognition of an independent Palestinian nation won't help Palestinians or Israelis reach a lasting two-state peace agreement. Clinton said the "path to a two-state solution that fulfills the aspirations of the Palestinian people is through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not New York."

Israel says the U.N. request contradicts agreements with the Palestinians that issues of statehood and sovereignty would be settled through negotiations.

Israel has threatened to withhold tax revenue it collects for the Palestinian Authority, while members of Congress have threatened to cut aid payments to the Palestinian governing body. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said only negotiations with Israel can bring about a Palestinian state.

Three Israeli prime ministers have offered Palestinian negotiators a Palestinian state on 100% of Gaza and more than 90% of the West Bank with additional land swaps from inside Israel to make up the difference.

Weinberg said there's room for compromise, "but Israel's not going to fold under international dictate coming through Palestinian maneuvers in the U.N. where they have an automatic majority."

Many negotiations have taken place since peace talks began with the Oslo accords in 1994 but have not resulted in agreement. Abbas insisted that Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem cease before talks resumed. Israel won't accept such preconditions.

Aaron David Miller, vice president of the Woodrow Wilson Center and a former Middle East peace negotiator for the State Department, said Abbas' bid at the United Nations is "a non-consequential move by a weak player holding very weak cards."

The U.N. status may allow the Palestinians to request charges against Israeli actions in international bodies such as the International Criminal Court. Even if Palestinians bring Israel before U.N. legal bodies, the outcome of such efforts is uncertain because Israel would bring countercharges against the Palestinians, Miller said.

Samir Awad, a professor of political science at Birzeit University in the West Bank, said the bid has a lot to do with the most recent conflict between Hamas in Gaza and Israel. Hamas is a rival to Abbas' Fatah Party, and its rocket attacks against Israel "made President Abbas look weak," he said.

Awad said Abbas will go ahead in his U.N. bid in part to shore up his image.

"He's determined, and he's not caving in to threats from the West," Awad said.

In the West Bank, where Abbas is the highest elected official, Palestinians expressed hope that their president would succeed. But they said the bid won't change things for them — and could make matters worse.

"Israel won't make peace with us, and even [President] Obama can't force Israel to give us sovereignty," said Amir Amir, 56, a grocer. "If the United Nations doesn't establish a Palestinian state, who will?"

The Palestinian Authority is in charge of all governmental matters in the West Bank, but Israeli checkpoints prevent residents from traveling to Israel and sometimes within the West Bank itself. The security barrier Israel erected has prevented terrorists from reaching Israel but restricts Palestinians' ability to travel even to nearby Jerusalem to work, study or visit family.

Some residents at the Aida refugee camp, pop. 5,000, in Bethlehem lost their homes in what is now Israel during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948.

The camp, a maze of narrow streets, is partially encircled by the security wall covered with demands for Palestinian freedom and depictions of stone-throwing youths battling Israeli soldiers. Hanging out with some of his school friends on a street corner, Ali Abu Sror, 17, said he hopes Hamas, which fired hundreds of rockets into Israel last week, won't try to undermine Abbas' diplomatic efforts.

"Hamas put Israel on the defensive, but ultimately, we need a diplomatic solution that brings peace," Sror said. "We want to live in peace, not in perpetual war."

Chabin reported from Bethlehem; Dorell reported from Washington. Contributing: The Associated Press.