BICOM

Reports in Israel suggest that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas will go to the UN Security Council (UNSC) in the coming weeks to seek recognition for the State of Palestine.

The report in Army Radio comes after Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki told Voice of Palestine on Monday that his ministry will apply to the UNSC to get full UN membership for the State of Palestine and demand international protection for the people under the Israeli occupation.

Former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said it was “clear to the Palestinians that there would be an American veto of the move”. Palestinians have been seeking full UN membership since 2011. In 2012, the UN General Assembly granted Palestine observer status as a non-member of the UN.

During a recent trip when Abbas spoke to EU Foreign Ministers, Majdi al-Khalidi, who accompanied Abbas, told Al-Monitor: “President Abbas asked the EU countries to recognise the State of Palestine as soon as possible,” adding that the Palestinian Foreign Ministry “is making contacts with a number of European countries” for these efforts. A number of European countries are reportedly seriously considering recognising the State of Palestine.”

Khalidi also expressed the Palestinians’ desire to find a new formula for negotiations through the Quartet and other countries such as Japan or China. Following US President Donald Trump’s Jerusalem recognition, the PA said it will only enter peace talks with Israel provided they are carried out under the auspices of international parties rather than solely the US.

In related news, an emergency meeting of donor states for Gaza reconstruction took place yesterday.  During the meeting, Israel announced that it would allow generators to be brought into the Gaza Strip in an attempt to ease the humanitarian crisis there. Gaza suffers from high levels of electricity shortage as Israel places strict regulations on goods, including generators, entering the Strip for security reasons.

Earlier this week, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov said that Gaza was on “on the verge of a total system failure”.