Palestinians submit bid for UN recognition

Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS

The Palestinian leader took his people’s quest for independence to the heart of world diplomacy Friday, seeking U.N. recognition of Palestine and sidestepping negotiations that have foundered for nearly two decades under the weight of inflexibility, violence and failure of will.

The bid to win recognition of a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem — submitted over the objections of the U.S. — laid bare the deep sense of Palestinian exasperation after 44 years of Israeli occupation.

“The time is now for the Palestinian Spring, the time for independence,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared.

“The time has come to end the suffering and the plight of millions of Palestine refugees in the homeland and the diaspora, to end their displacement and to realize their rights.”

After Abbas submitted his formal application, international mediators called on Israel and the Palestinians to return to long-stalled negotiations and reach an agreement no later than next year. The Quartet — the U.S., European Union, U.N. and Russia — urged both parties to draw up an agenda for peace talks within a month and produce comprehensive proposals on territory and security within three months.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the proposal “represents the firm conviction of the international community that a just and lasting peace can only come through negotiations between the parties.”

Similar plans have failed to produce a peace agreement, and it was unclear how the two sides could bridge their huge differences and resume talks.

The Quartet statement was radically different from what diplomats had been hoping to draft since it became clear that Abbas would not back down. U.S. and European officials had been trying to craft a statement that would outline parameters of the negotiations, including a reference to borders being based on the 1967 lines and affirm Israel’s identity as a Jewish state.

Instead, the Quartet focused on proposing deadlines.