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Abbas calls for founding of Palestinian state in 2017

Abbas hopes to have the Palestinian Authority’s status in the UN upgraded to full-fledged statehood. 

Chairman of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mahmoud Abbas called upon the international community on Saturday night to collectively recognize a state of Palestine in 2017.

“We are calling for 2017 to be the year of international recognition of the State of Palestine because more recognitions will strengthen the possibility of achieving a two-state solution and real peace,” Abbas stated, speaking from his headquarters in Ramallah.

Although 136 countries have unilaterally recognized a state of Palestine, the UN body has only gone as far as upgrading the PA’s status to a non-member observer state back in 2012. The Vatican is the only other entity in the UN that has a similar status.

Abbas, who remains chairman of the PA despite only securing a four-year term in 2005, celebrated the passing of UN Security Council Resolution 2334 on December 23.

“I say to you that settlements on the land of the occupied State of Palestine are on their way out,” Abbas insisted. “We secured a historic UN Security Council resolution, which said that any changes since 1967 to the demographic composition or land of the State of Palestine including East Jerusalem are unacceptable.”

The UN Security Council resolution, which condemns all Israeli presence in territory won by Israel from Jordan during the Six-Day War in 1967, was able to pass unanimously after the Obama Administration elected to abstain instead of exercising the US’s automatic veto power.  

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By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News