Muhammad Shtayyeh, a member of the Palestinian Negotiations team, said in an encounter with journalists in the West Bank village of Dura al-Qarya’ on Monday that the Palestinian leadership is preparing to make a much-discussed move in the UN General Assembly — “soon”.
The move, as Shtayyeh described it, will be to seek recognition of the State of Palestine within the boundaries that existed on 4 June 1967, just before the outbreak of the Six-Day war some 45 years ago.
This is different from the “UN bid” of last September, when Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO] leader Mahmoud Abbas formally requested full UN membership for the State of Palestine.
Because the planned move is different, Shtayyah told this journalist, it will not require either withdrawing the “UN bid” handed to the UN Secretary-General in New York last 23 September, or insisting on a show-down that would end with public Palestinian defeat after the Obama administration made sure it would veto any such step.
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