UN backs Palestinians plans for statehood by August
No mention of the Palis recognizing the state of Israel of course.
The United Nations Security Council could support the Palestinian’s unilateral bid for statehood if Israel does not renew its freeze on new settlement construction, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry warned Israel on Tuesday.
“If the freeze is not renewed, then yes, maybe this is going to happen,” Serry said as he spoke with The Jerusalem Post in an olive grove in the West Bank village of Turmus Aiya, located in the Binyamin Region near the Shiloh settlement.
He held a joint event there with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to mark the founding of the UN 65 years ago.
But he qualified his remarks by noting that he was an official of the UN and not a member of the Security Council, whose 15-member body would make such a decision.
The PA has threatened to turn to the UN and ask for recognition of Palestinian statehood inside the 1967 lines if the diplomatic process breaks down. The Palestinians said they would not resume talks unless Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu resumed a settlement moratorium, and Netanyahu has said he would consider the possibility of bringing an additional freeze to the cabinet if the Palestinians would recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people – something they are refusing to do.