The Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee Thursday affirmed the importance of seeking United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, as WAFA reported. Executive Committee secretary, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said following a committee meeting in Ramallah chaired by President Mahmoud Abbas, that the Palestinian leadership is determined to proceed with plans to win recognition by the UN and that it will work with friendly nations to reach that goal. He said getting UN membership would strengthen efforts to re-start the peace process and negotiations based on clear goals that would achieve the two-state solution. He said that contrary to what some people are saying, going to the UN does not change the status of the PLO or the refugees, rather it would strengthen their position to reach their goal of return to their homeland. Abed Rabbo said the Palestinian leadership insists on adopting peaceful means of popular rallies in support of the Palestinian bid to UN, calling on Palestinians everywhere to hold mass rallies on the day the UN starts to discuss the Palestinian membership request. He said that “everyone realizes that the settlers' acts of vandalism and terrorism supported by the Israeli government and army aim to provoke the Palestinian people to foil the bid and sabotage the peaceful nature of our popular campaign.”
