Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to submit a formal request within days for the United Nations to accept Palestine as its 194th member when the General Assembly opens on September 20. The US argue that a Palestinian state can’t be created without a prior comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and Palestine. But the recognition of Palestine as a sovereign state would give clearer terms of references in order to have a more equal negotiate. Statehood would of course give the Palestinians greater leverage in fighting the Israeli occupation, because Palestine would turn into a state under foreign occupation, a strong argument in front of the International Criminal Court. The possibility of going to the International Criminal Court (ICC) is in fact the main reason why Israel fears the creation of an independent Palestinian state. But if Israel doesn’t violate the international law, then it shouldn’t fear the ICC. “If we achieve the UN membership, we will then directly negotiate with Israel. The terms of negotiations with Israel will be clearer and we will achieve some further progress: security for them, our own land and country for us,” Palestinian Ambassador Munir Ghannam told The Peninsula. The other point that Israel raise against the UN membership is that the Palestine would be able to buy military hardware. “We need to build schools, hospitals, factories, farms! We are not in the mood to spend money to accumulate army for nothing. It s a waste of money,” said Ghannam. Europe has always financially supported the building of the Palestinian State, but now it’s the time for the political support. The US said it would veto the Palestinian initiative in the Security Council. If that happens the Palestinians say they will turn to the General Assembly where they expect to easily win votes to upgrade their representation from current observer to non-member state. “The US will lose its own credibility if it decides to use the veto to stop the Palestinians from having their own state” said Ghannam. But the consequences of an American veto are negative not only for the US, but for the whole world. As the former president of the US Jimmy Carter said in his article in The New York Times, “the alternative to this new international effort will be an expansion of hopelessness, animosity and probable violence”. The Peninsula

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