While Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman flew to Vienna to attend an urgent meeting of Israeli ambassadors to Europe to discuss the Palestinians’ bid to upgrade their UN status later this month, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called on European Foreign Ministers to oppose the move and to urge the Palestinian Authority to resume negotiations with Israel.
It is expected that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would ask for a vote on the non-member status at the UN General Assembly on November 15 or 29.
The European Union has repeatedly called for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians as a platform toward a resolution of the conflict as well as the establishment of a Palestinian state, rather than unilteral moves.
In a statement issued Thursday on Israeli tenders for expanding settlements, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton stated
that "unilateral action by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the European Union".
"We share the belief that peace can best be achieved through bilateral, direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on all final status issues," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL's National Director.
"Recognition of Palestinian statehood by the U.N. General Assembly will create numerous and serious obstacles to a resumption of bilateral negotiations. This campaign has the potential to increase the chances of an outbreak of violence, harming the Palestinians themselves, the economic gains they have made, and further eroding Israeli confidence that they have a partner for negotiations."
In a letter to EU Foreign Ministers, who are due to meet in Brussels on November 19, ADL expressed the significance of their role in conveying to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that the only diplomatic move worthy of international support is a return to negotiations with Israel.
ADL’s letter noted that legal scholars have also cited harm that would be done to international law on state recognition and that Palestinian membership initiatives can potentially have "serious negative consequences" for international organizations themselves.
ADL also praised the role of the United States and its UN Ambassador Susan Rice for their efforts to ensure that the Palestinian campaign for observer state status at the U.N. does not proceed.
"The Palestinian people would have their expectations raised and then disappointed following their realization that the change in status affects only the Palestinians at their Permanent Missions to the U.N. and not Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza," Mr. Foxman wrote to the European ministers.
"We look to you to send the right message to President Abbas at this critical moment and to use your influence within and beyond the European Union to amplify it."
On Thursday, the Israeli Foreign Minister warned that there would be "far-reaching implications" to the Palestinians’ bid to upgrade their UN status.
"This unilateral step has broken the rules and crossed a red line," Lieberman said before travelling to Vienna to meet the Israeli ambassadors.
The emissaries are discussing ways to lobby European governments not to support the plan and to pressure the Palestinian Authority to either delay, or drop, its bid.
Earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel and the US must delay the Palestinian unilateral statehood moves at the UN until after the Israeli elections in January.
Speaking on Israel’s Channel 10 television hours after US President Barack Obama was elected to a second four-year term, Barak declared : "We have a joint interest, ours and theirs, to delay the Palestinian UN bid for nonmember state."
"This has to be done now, immediately."
During his recent visit to Paris, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Mahmoud Abbas to achieve statehood through a negotiated solution rather than through unilateral measures.
He invited the Palestinian Authority President to sit down with him - he said Jerusalem and Ramallah are ony 7 minutes away - and negotiate without preconditions.
“Unfortunately, I have still not heard back from the Palestinian side... I hope they won’t go to one-sided action in the UN because that will only push peace back and will only produce unnecessary instability,” Netanyahu said.
The upgraded status would not grant the Palestinians full rights as a United Nations member state. Only the Security Council can grant a state membership. The US has promised to veto it. But a UN General Assembly vote to upgrade the Palestinian status to that of non-member observer state cannot be vetoed and the Palestinians already know they have the majority support needed to pass the resolution.