JERICHO, West Bank – The Palestinians will ask the United Nations to upgrade their status in the world body by year's end, enabling them to pursue Israel through the international courts, a senior Palestinian official said Thursday. The request to become a non-member “observer state” rather than just an “observer entity”, would give the Palestinians the same UN rank as the Vatican, enhancing their legal rights at a time when peace negotiations with Israel have hit a wall. Such a motion would only need majority backing in the 193-nation UN General Assembly, where the Palestinians can rely on substantial support and resolutions cannot be vetoed by Israel's most powerful ally, the United States. “The day after (we get) non-member statehood, life will not be the same,” said the veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, speaking in his office in the West Bank city of Jericho. “Yes, the occupation will continue, the settlements will continue, the crimes of the settlers may continue, but there will be consequences,” he told reporters. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sought full statehood recognition at the United Nations last year. This ambitious drive had to pass through the UN Security Council, but failed to gather enough votes in the face of fierce US lobbying. Abbas will address the General Assembly on Sept. 27, after which his aides will consult other nations before presenting the watered-down request to become an observer state, claiming as Palestinian territory the lands that Israel seized in the 1967 war, with East Jerusalem as their capital. Israel has annexed East Jerusalem and built 120 settlements across the occupied West Bank, with some 500,000 Israelis living beyond the so-called 1967 green line. “After the UN vote ... Palestine will become a country under occupation. Israel will not be able to say that this is a disputed area,” Erekat said. “The terms of reference for any negotiations will be about withdrawal, not over what the Israelis say is legal or not legal.” As an observer state, Palestine could not only participate in assembly debates, but also join various UN agencies, such as the Law of the Sea Treaty and the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is based in the Hague. The ICC rejected in April a Palestinian request to look into alleged crimes in the Palestinian Territories, because they were not full UN members. Erekat indicated that Palestinians would turn again to the ICC after the forthcoming assembly vote. “Those who don't want to appear before the international tribunals must stop their crimes and it is time for them to become accountable,” he said. Some 120 countries have already granted the Palestinians the rank of a sovereign state, but Erekat said they hoped to win the votes of between 150 and 170 nations at the United Nations to hammer home US and Israeli isolation on the issue. – Reuters
