<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[PA to Request Declaration from UN Security&nbsp;Council]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><em><span class="createdate">Monday, 17 January 2011 15:45 </span> <span class="createby"> Tania Kepler for the Alternative Information Center (AIC) </span></em></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Following  an influx of Israeli building plans approved for East Jerusalem and the  West Bank, the Palestinian Authority plans to ask the United Nations  Security Council to declare Israeli settlements illegal and demand that  all construction be stopped.</span></span></strong></p>
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<p></span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, says the request is likely to be submitted by Wednesday, 19 January.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The  Palestinian Authority and Israeli government spent months in failed  peace talks with the United States that resulted in nothing more than a  settlement construction boom upon completion.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Erekat  told Ma&#8217;an News that, “The Israelis are responsible for the collapse of  the peace process, not only at the Israeli-Palestinian level, but they  are also responsible for the repercussions of that collapse in the whole  region because the policy they chose leads to chaos, extremism and  bloodshed.”</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">According  to Erekat the Palestinians fear that the United States, a firm and  faithful supporter of Israel and a member of the Security Council, will  veto a proposed halt to settlement construction.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">“The  Americans don’t want anything to be submitted to the Security Council,  but we insist that we consider the Security Council our path toward  international legitimacy,” he said.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">“We don’t want the draft resolution to be vetoed by the US,” Erekat added.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">According  to the chief negotiator, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the  United Nations, was scheduled to consult all UN groups in order to  determine when to submit the draft resolution, which has already been  worded.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">“In  case the US vetoes the resolution, we know that at least we have tried  and used all available means. We will not abstain from doing what we can  do just because we think this side or another will oppose it,” Erekat  added.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The  Jerusalem Municipality in particular has been hard at work approving  requests for local construction across the Green Line. This week the  municipality’s Local Planning Committee is expected to announce approval  for the <a href="http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/jerusalem/3182-1400-housing-units-to-be-built-in-east-jerusalem-colony-of-gilo-">construction of 1,400 new housing units in East Jerusalem’s Gilo colony</a>,  in addition to the construction approved for 130 new housing units in  the East Jerusalem settlement neighborhood in November 2010.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Last week the Jerusalem Municipality <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_iw0sEQTx0&amp;feature=player_embedded">demolished part of the historic Shepherd Hotel</a> in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in order to make  way for a new right-wing religious settlement complex including 20  housing units, a three-story parking structure and an access road on the  site.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Following  the end of the settlement freeze in the fall of 2010, some were  speculating that the Palestinian Authority might ask the United Nations  Security Council to proclaim the establishment of a Palestinian state in  the West Bank and Gaza, along the pre-1967 borders, and set a timetable  for implementation.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">While  this seems unlikely at present, the Palestinian state has been gaining  further recognition. Guyana became the most recent of a string of South  American states to recognize a Palestinian state, on Thursday 13  January.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">A  statement from the country’s foreign ministry says Guyana hopes  increasing recognition worldwide will &#8220;contribute to a resolution of the  Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the creation of lasting peace and  stability in the region.&#8221;</span></span></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/news/3195-pa-to-request-declaration-from-un-security-council-">PA to Request Declaration from UN Security Council</a>.</p>
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