Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat recommended Sunday that the Palestinian
Authority add the label “State of Palestine” to all of its official documents
and signs.
Erekat also suggested that the PA leadership prepare a new
constitution, achieve reconciliation with Hamas, and seek membership in UN
conventions and agencies following the upgrading of the Palestinians’s status to
non-member observer state.
Erekat, in a study published Sunday, accused
Congress and the Israeli government of “waging war” on the Palestinian national
project following the UN vote last November.
He predicted that the “war”
would continue. “The decisions they have taken are only the beginning,” Erekat
said, referring to Israel’s decision to withhold tax and customs revenues, and
threats by Congress to suspend financial aid to the Palestinians.
Erekat
also recommended that the PA leadership prepare a working plan for the
resumption of peace talks with Israel from the point where they ended in
November 2008.
He said such talks should be limited to six months, only
during which time Israel would freeze construction in West Bank settlements and
east Jerusalem and release Palestinian prisoners, especially those who were
incarcerated before the signing of the Oslo Accords.
Erekat said that if
Israel insisted on building in E1 and Givat Hamatos, the Palestinians should
take the matter to the UN Security Council.
“If the effort does not
succeed because of a veto, the case should be taken to the UN General Assembly
to make a decision regarding building settlements in the occupied State of
Palestine,” Erekat recommended. He also called for laying a Palestinian strategy
for dealing with those Israelis who accept the principle of a two-state
solution.
Erekat concluded his recommendations by stating that the
upgrading of the Palestinians’ status “would not change the reality of Israeli
occupation of the Palestinian territories.”
However, he pointed out that
following the UN vote, the “occupation has become an occupation of one member of
the UN by another member. This requires creating a new political dynamic and
approach between the international community and Israel.”
Erekat
disclosed that a special Palestinian legal team was now studying measures needed
to obtain membership in 17 UN agencies, including the International Criminal
Court, the World Health Organization, UNESCO and the World Bank.