The Palestinians are resigned to losing their battle for majority backing within the United Nations security council for their application for full UN membership but may still press for a vote next week in an attempt to discomfort countries who abstain or vote against.
The security council is to meet in New York on Friday to consider a report on the Palestinian bid. However, the Palestinians have failed to muster the required two-thirds majority among its 15 members, thus sparing the US the need to use its veto to prevent the application being approved.
The Palestinians will also officially receive the report on Friday and the leadership will meet to decide future steps, according to a Palestinian official. "There will definitely be no vote [at the security council] tomorrow," he said.
One of the options for the Palestinians to consider is to demand a vote next week, knowing they will lose. "Let these countries publicly justify why they will not support a Palestinian state," said the official. The British foreign secretary, William Hague, looked "deeply uncomfortable" in the House of Commons this week when explaining Britain's decision to abstain in any vote, he added.
Another option is to take their case to the UN general assembly without a security council vote. The Palestinians are expected to win the support of more than two-thirds of the UN's 193 countries, but the general assembly can only approve upgraded observer status rather than full membership.
However, enhanced "non-member state" status may allow the Palestinians access to international bodies such as the international criminal court.
"The most important thing is who is going to win in the final round," the Palestinian foreign minister, Riad al-Malki, told Associated Press. "There will be other rounds and we will never despair." He blamed the US for "huge intervention" to dissuade members of the security council from supporting the Palestinian bid.
Eight security council members – Russia, China, South Africa, India, Brazil, Lebanon, Nigeria and Gabon – are expected to vote in favour of Palestinian membership. Britain and France formally announced this week they would abstain, along with Portugal and Bosnia. Germany and Colombia are expected to either abstain or vote against alongside the US.
The security council referred the Palestinian application to a membership committee in September, which is reported to be divided over its conclusions. The euphoria in the West Bank that greeted the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas's speech to the UN on 23 September has since largely dissipated.
Israel is opposed to any change of status at the UN, saying the Palestinians should return to talks. "I call on the Palestinian leadership and urge it to return to the negotiations table immediately in order to settle our differences. Peace will not be achieved in the United Nations because the UN cannot provide independence to the Palestinians and cannot supply security to Israel," the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, said this week.
But the Palestinians have lost faith in negotiations while Israel continues to expand settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Representatives of the Middle East Quartet, comprising the UN, US, Russia and the European Union, will meet Palestinian and Israeli negotiators separately next week in an attempt to get talks restarted.
Meanwhile, 15 gravestones in a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem were vandalised, with "death to Arabs" painted across them in what was thought to be a "price tag" attack by Jewish extremists. Earlier this week a prominent Israeli human rights activist discovered death threats sprayed on the walls of her home. Police arrested a 21-year-old man on suspicion of carrying out the attack.
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