The Palestinians on Thursday launched a campaign in support of their UN membership bid, as their leaders met to reaffirm plans to become the world body's 194th member state. The so-called "National Campaign for Palestine: State 194" is part of the build-up to September 20, when president Mahmud Abbas is expected to submit a formal request that the United Nations accept the state of Palestine as a member.
Abbas on Thursday met senior Palestinian representatives including the central committee of his Fatah party, the PLO's executive committee and leaders of various Palestinian political parties. The PLO committee "affirms the need to continue at the next session of the UN, the process to obtain recognition of membership for a state of Palestine on the borders of June 4, 1967, with east Jerusalem as its capital," PLO secretary general Yasser Abed Rabbo said in a statement after the session.
"The Palestinian leadership believes that attaining this goal will encourage the relaunch of a serious peace process and new negotiations with the clear objective of a two-state solution on the 1967 borders," he said, referring to the lines that existed before the 1967 Six Day War.
The leadership meetings came just 10 days before Abbas is expected to fly to New York where he will present a formal membership request to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on September 20. As the leaders met, the official Palestinian campaign of support for the bid got under way with around 100 people marching to UN headquarters in Ramallah to hand in a letter to the UN representative asking that Ban support the membership application. The letter, a copy of which was seen by AFP, said the campaign would continue "until the state of Palestine is finally admitted as member state number 194."
"Today we began our campaign on the ground and we chose the UN building because it represents the United Nations and we expect them to respond to our demands," campaign co-ordinator Ahmed Assaf told AFP. "We are no less important than the other 193 states in the United Nations, and our message asks for our state to be 194."
Chanting "We want a state," the marchers waved Palestinian flags and held up signs demanding that Palestine be admitted as the 194th state, also calling on Arab nations to support the bid. The letter was given to Pascal Soto, head of the UN office in Ramallah, by Latifa Abu Hamid, a 60-year-old mother from Amari refugee camp near Ramallah, whose seven sons who have all spent time in Israeli prisons. Her eighth son was shot dead by Israeli troops. "I'm delivering this message to the UN to say we have a right to our own state just like everyone else in the world and we have a right to see the end of the occupation," she said. The letter urged Ban to "stand by justice and do right by our people."