Palestinians launch statehood campaign

Thu Sep 8, 2011

Palestinians have launched their campaign to join the United Nations as a full member state by marching on the United Nations office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Scores of Palestinian officials and activists gathered at the UN building on Thursday, saying they would stage peaceful events ahead of the UN General Assembly's annual meeting later this month, the Associated Press reported.

They also handed a letter addressed to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, urging him to add his “moral voice in support of the Palestinian people.”

The document was delivered by Latifa Abu Hmeid, a 70-year-old woman who Palestinian officials said symbolizes the plight of oppressed Palestinians.

Abu Hmeid has lost a son to Israeli aggression and has seven others held in Israeli prisons. A resident of a West Bank refugee camp, she has seen her house demolished twice by Israeli forces.

“Families of the tens of thousands of victims of Israeli occupation, including those martyred, wounded and imprisoned, and countless others who were expelled from their homes or lost their homes and their property, hope that you will exert all possible efforts toward the achievement of the Palestinian people's just demands,” the letter read.

Meanwhile, the executive committee of the Palestinian Authority has met for the last time before going to the UN for a vote on full sovereignty.

The Palestinian Authority decided to seek recognition of an independent state after Israel refused negotiations.

A round of US-brokered talks between the two sides also broke down in 2010, after Tel Aviv refused to halt settlement construction on occupied Palestinian land.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/198095.html.