RAMALLAH: On Thursday morning around 300 people gathered in Ramallah's Yasser Arafat Square to celebrate the upcoming United Nations General Assembly vote to upgrade Palestine from “entity" to “nonmember observer state." The Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas traveled to New York earlier this week with Foreign Minister Riyadh Malki to prepare for the vote, which will take place on Thursday. The UNGA is expected to approve the upgrade. Earlier this week it was learned that France and several European countries, possibly the United Kingdom included, will vote to upgrade Palestine. The United States and Israel have stated their clear opposition to what they call “unilateral" steps towards international recognition. Statehood, they argue, can only be realized through bilateral negotiations with Israel. Facing what will certainly be a diplomatic disaster, Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman suggested toppling the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. This week Israeli leaders have tried to downplay the significance of the UN bid, pointing out that it will not change anything as of present. The Palestinian leadership, however, note that negotiations mean little to nothing as Israeli settlements, illegal under international law, continue to swallow large swaths of the occupied West Bank at an unprecedented rate. Over 500,000 Israeli settlers presently reside in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, both occupied during the June 1967 War. In recent months, several studies have documented rising settler attacks against Palestinian civilians, especially in villages near Nablus, Hebron, and Bethlehem. Last fall PA President Abbas sought full state membership in the United Nations, but the vote was vetoed by the United States. “I support the president, we want a state," Yasser, a 22-year-old university student, told BikyaMasr.com, in reference to a two-state solution that creates a sovereign Palestine next to Israel. “Okay, at least then we'll have an airport; we'll control our own borders; the settlers won't be able to attack us," he added. However, large swaths of the West Bank are expected to be annexed in any two-state solution, reallocating settlement land within Israel's borders, yet to be concretely defined. “I'm against a two-state solution," another Palestinian man who asked to be anonymous objected. “It's easy for people here in Ramallah whose families aren't from Haifa or Jaffa or Acre to sell away our country. But my mother's from Jaffa. She doesn't have a right to visit it; she has a right to return to rebuild a life there—nobody can take that away from her." In any case, a UNGA vote in favor of the upgrade will not change the situation on the ground. Israel will still control the West Bank, effectively in its entirety. It will, however, pave the way for Palestine to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), where it could take Israel for a slew of international and humanitarian law violations. Celebrations in Ramallah are expected to continue throughout Thursday. Many PA representatives will deliver speeches in support of the UN bid. At 5:00 pm local time, President Abbas is expected to address the UNGA.
