Abbas Seeks Membership to 15 UN Bodies Despite Talks
“Let death steal over them; let them go down to Sheol alive; for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.” (Psalm 55:15)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) and Palestinian chief peace negotiator Saeb Erekat, signs an application to the U.N. agencies in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, April 1, 2014. Abbas signed a request to join 15 United Nations agencies, in a move that could derail a US push to revive faltering peace talks with Israel. (Photo: Issam Rimawi/Flash90)
United States Secretary of State John Kerry cancelled a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that would have taken place on Wednesday in Ramallah. The cancellation was announced after Abbas made a public display of signing applications seeking Palestinian admission to 15 United Nations bodies.
“The Palestinian leadership has unanimously approved a decision to seek membership of 15 UN agencies and international treaties,” Abbas announces Tuesday night.
A PA official said that Abbas, who signed the documents Tuesday night, sought to join councils on human, disabled, civil, and women’s rights. The first document reportedly signed by Abbas was the Fourth Geneva Convention.
A Fatah official told the PA Wafa news agency that the next membership it would seek would be to the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.
As part of a newly proposed U.S. brokered deal that would extend peace talks until 2015, the PA would have to agree to not seek international recognition. Israel has unofficially agreed to conditions of the proposal and has been awaiting Palestinian response since Tuesday.
Among the conditions set on Israel, Israel would have to agree to a partial construction freeze in Judea and Samaria and release an additional 400 Palestinians from prison, aside from the 26 Palestinian terrorist prisoners. The Israeli cabinet is set to vote on the matter in the upcoming days.
Israel Radio reported that while the applications have been signed, they have not been sent out. According to a Palestinian source, this leaves the PA an open option should Israel pull back from any agreements.
Kerry said that it was too early to declare talks dead. Kerry noted that State Department officials and members of the U.S. negotiating team are working around the clock, on the ground in Israel to close the deal.
“It is completely premature tonight to draw any kind of judgment, certainly any final judgment, about today’s events and where things are,” Kerry stated in a press conference from Brussels. “It is difficult, it is emotional, it required huge decisions, some of them with great political difficulty, all of which need to come together simultaneously. It’s at moments like this when we all need to remember exactly what brought us to this effort in the first place, what the goal is, and where everybody wants to end up.”
Kerry stressed that Abbas had promised that he would continue to engage in peace negotiations until the April 29 deadline.
Israeli ministers have threatened retaliation over Abass’s latest move.
Tourism Minister Uzi Landau told Israel Radio, “If they are now threatening [to go to UN institutions], they must know something simple: They will pay a heavy price. One of the possible measures will be Israel applying sovereignty over areas that will clearly be part of the State of Israel in any future solution.”
Landau mentioned the possibility of acting economically “to block financial aid to them” should the PA continue on its path towards recognition.
Deputy Minister Ofir Akunis said Abbas’s was using “extortion” to get what it wants.He noted that “nothing satisfies Abbas and that Palestinian extortion knows no bounds.”
“The Palestinians are removing their mask to reveal their true face…that the last thing that interests them is a diplomatic solution,” he said. “The only thing that interests them is dancing in the streets with heinous murderers,” Akunis added.
Deputy Knesset Speak Moshe Feiglin urged Israel to “announce the cancellation of the infernal [Oslo] agreements and to exercise Israeli sovereignty over all the territory.”
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