Palestinians warn: back UN statehood bid or risk boosting Hamas

Failure to support limited recognition would undermine Abbas and validate armed resistance to Israel for many, officials warn

 Chris McGreal in Ramallah
The Guardian, Tuesday 27 November 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/27/palestinians-un-statehood-bid-hamas 

Confronted with a Palestinian application to go to the international court, Hillary Clinton reportedly said: 'Don't you even go there.' Photograph: Reuters

The Palestinian leadership is warning Europe and the US that failure to support its bid for statehood at the United Nations on Thursday will further strengthen Hamas after the Gaza fighting by suggesting that violence, rather than diplomacy, is the way to win concessions from Israel.

Senior Palestinian officials believe the vote is a crucial test of whether there is a future for President Mahmoud Abbas's diplomatic strategy after his credibility was badly damaged among Palestinians by what they regard as the success of Hamas in the conflict with Israel this month.

Many ordinary Palestinians believe the conflict showed that standing up to Israel delivers results, in contrast to years of concessions under US peace plans, and drawn-out negotiations. European diplomats concede that the fighting has shifted the ground before the Palestinian request for recognition as a "non-member state". Failure to support Abbas could risk further undermining his increasingly weak position, to Hamas's advantage, they warn.

France has said it will vote in favour, and Spain is shifting in that direction. But the US and Britain are attempting to weaken the impact of a UN vote in support of statehood by putting considerable pressure on the Palestinian leadership to offer guarantees that it will not take advantage of the new status to accuse Israel of war crimes at the international criminal court (ICC) or seek territorial rulings at the international court of justice...READ MORE