A Palestinian View: We are ready for freedom and independence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Blog) July 4, 2011 - 12:00am

After its last meeting, the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization announced officially its intention to go to the United Nations to seek the help of the international community in ending Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, achieving freedom and independence and enjoying the legitimate rights of self-determination in accordance with international law and United Nations resolutions.

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Sha'ath: PA optimistic about UN statehood bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 28, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian leadership is to step up efforts to consolidate a UN statehood bid this September, Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Sha'ath told local media in Ramallah on Tuesday. Sha'ath, who is also commissioner for external relations in the Fatah movement, said that the Palestinian Authority has decided to set up a committee to manage all matters related to preparations for the September UN bid.

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All eyes on UN
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) June 27, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian decision to approach the United Nations seeking formal approval for their state appears to have set cat among the pigeons. Although Israel and its powerful backers in the United States initially dismissed the Palestinian move with contempt, there’s increasing signs of nervousness, if not panic, over the possible fallout of such a proposal getting the go-ahead by the world body.

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A guide to September
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) June 27, 2011 - 12:00am

The PLO leadership has made its decision. In September it will ask the United Nations to recognize the State of Palestine in the pre-June 4, 1967 borders and grant it membership. After submitting an official letter to the secretary-general in which they will request to become a member state of the UN, the representatives of Palestine will declare that they will adhere to the UN Charter and that they are a peace-loving state.

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Mantras parading as incontestable truths
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Uri Avnery - (Opinion) June 26, 2011 - 12:00am

Those opposing the Palestinians’ UN bid forget that State of Israel was proclaimed unilaterally The Palestinians are planning something thoroughly obnoxious: They intend to apply to the UN for statehood. Why obnoxious? Any Israeli spokesman (not to mention spokeswoman) will tell you readily: Because it is a "unilateral" move. How dare they proclaim a state unilaterally? How dare they do so without the consent of the other party to the conflict — us?

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Israel surveys support for Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 23, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel's foreign ministry estimates under two-thirds of UN member states will recognize a Palestinian state declared in September, and is launching a campaign to keep the number down, Israel Radio reported Thursday. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman instructed his department to survey the 192 countries in the United Nations, and send Israeli parliamentarians to nations who are yet undecided, the broadcast noted. The study said 118 nations would support the bid.

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EU's Ashton to Haaretz: UN vote on Palestinian state not a done deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - June 23, 2011 - 12:00am

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, says she is not sure that there will be a vote in the United Nations in September on recognition of a Palestinian state and that the wording of the resolution is still uncertain. "It will depend very much on what the resolution says as to how the international community in general and the EU in particular, votes," Ashton told Haaretz in an interview this week in her office in the EU headquarters in Brussels.

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Abbas: UN in place of no other options
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 21, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian leadership will continue its pursuit of support for an appeal to the UN for membership and the recognition of statehood, and Salam Fayyad will head the new unity government, President Mahmoud Abbas told the Lebanese satellite channel LBC on Monday night. In the absence of negotiations with Israel, Abbas said, a move at the UN would be the chosen course of action. If the United States, Israel and Europe have objections to a UN appeal, he continued "they must come up with an alternative."

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Pressure mounts on Palestinians to abandon U.N. statehood gambit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Leslie Susser - (Analysis) June 21, 2011 - 12:00am

The pressure on Mahmoud Abbas to back down from plans to seek recognition of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations in September is intensifying. Squeezed by a combination of concerted American pressure and intense Israeli diplomacy, some top Palestinian leaders are urging the Palestinian Authority's president to drop his September plan. Abbas, however, says he still intends to go ahead with the U.N. move, unless key international players can get serious peace talks going before then.

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The European position is key
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Blog) June 20, 2011 - 12:00am

The period from now until September is going to be crowded with ideas and proposals aimed at achieving two objectives. First, these will seek to head off the Palestinian plan to take the conflict to the United Nations for discussion and ask for recognition of the Palestinian state and membership at the world body. Second, these proposals will try to ensure a resumption of the bilateral negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis.

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