Palestinian leader to ask for full UN membership

Associated Press

RAMALLAH, West Bank

The Palestinian president said Friday he would ask the U.N. Security Council next week to endorse his people’s decades-long quest for statehood but emphasized that he did not seek to isolate or delegitimize Israel.

Mahmoud Abbas’ plan to seek full membership at the United Nations and bypass negotiations with Israel sets the stage for a diplomatic confrontation with Israel and the United States, which has indicated it would veto the measure in the Security Council.

Abbas appeared to leave himself some wiggle room in his address to the Palestinian people before departing for the annual U.N. General Assembly session in New York next week, saying he did not rule out other, unspecified options. Those could include seeking a lesser, “nonmember state” observer status from the General Assembly, a more easily obtainable goal.

He also acknowledged that his U.N. move would not end the Israeli occupation and cautioned against outsize hopes.

“We don’t want to raise expectations by saying we are going to come back with full independence,” Abbas said in an address to Palestinian leaders. He said he was going to the United Nations to “ask the world to shoulder its responsibilities” by backing the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.

Abbas urged the Palestinian people to refrain from violence, saying “anything other than peaceful moves will harm us and sabotage our endeavors.”

And he asserted twice that his aim was not to isolate or delegitimize Israel — a charge Israel often levels at the Palestinians and their supporters.