Haneyya calls UN bid ‘political adventurism’

Gaza-based Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haneyya has slammed the Palestinian Authority’s bid for membership in the United Nations, calling the move “political adventurism”.
He said that the PA’s UN bid “moved in the opposite direction” of the Arab Spring, adding that anyone who “acts frivolously with the Palestinians’ rights” is not warranted to speak on their behalf.
“We support establishing a state on part of the Palestinian territory that the Palestinians agree to, without recognizing the Zionist entity or conceding an inch of land,” Haneyya said during a session of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza on Sunday.
Critics of the UN bid, due to become reality next week, say recognizing an Israeli state on 1967 borders would relinquish the rights of the Palestinian refugees expelled from those territories.
“We are facing a situation that doesn’t withstand political adventurism and requires awareness and not following the policies of the former regimes,” Haneyya said.
The Palestinian premier instead called for consulting with the Palestinians to agree on a national strategy in addressing the Israeli occupation.
Prime Minister Haneyya further criticized the UN bid saying that it was in contravention of the Palestinian reconciliation deal signed earlier in May.
“Reconciliation and exclusivity in decisions are two parallel lines that do not meet,” Haneyya said.
Haneyya also considered the move a “lifeline” for Israel and America after the Arab Spring.
“We should have waited for the Arab revolution and invested in popular Arab movements in a way that strengthens and protects Palestinian position and rights,” he said.
However, Haneyya assured that statehood was in fact an objective of the Palestinians, and said “we will not stand as a stumbling block to the establishment of a fully sovereign state without making concessions”.
Professor of political sciences at Al-Najah University Abdul-Sattar criticized Abbas’s statehood bid in a separate statement describing it as a “waste of time and energy”.
“I think there is no need at all for the Palestinian Authority’s plan to go to the United Nations,” Qassem said.
“If Abbas was interested in bringing the United Nations to Palestinian issues, he could ask it to implement previous resolutions,” he said.

Source: PIC