Palestinians defy US Senate’s warning on statehood

The Palestinians on Thursday brushed off pressure from the US Senate to drop their bid for UN recognition of a future state, saying it sprang from pro-Israel bias, Agence France-Presse reported. "It is a new attempt by the US Congress to pressure us and it is blindly biased towards Israel," Nimer Hammad, a senior political adviser to President Mahmoud Abbas, told AFP. "We reject this decision and the Palestinian people will not succumb to such pressure and attempts." The Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution warning the Palestinians they could face cuts in US aid for pursuing UN endorsement of a future state not defined as a result of direct negotiations with Israel. The measure also raises the prospects of halting assistance to any Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas - unless the radical movement renounces violence and accepts Israel’s right to exist. The House of Representatives is expected to consider a companion measure. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks ground to a halt in September 2010 when Israel failed to renew a partial freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. Since then, the Palestinians have refused to return to talks as long as Israel builds on occupied land they want for a future state. The Senate resolution supports US President Barack Obama’s opposition to the Palestinian strategy and urges him to pledge that Washington will veto any resolution on Palestinian statehood before the UN Security Council unless it is the result of Israel-Palestinian talks, according to AFP. The measure also warns that US lawmakers “will consider restrictions on aid to the Palestinian Authority should it persist in efforts to circumvent direct negotiations by turning to the United Nations or other international bodies.” Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that the Dutch government rejected the Palestinian initiative Thursday to seek UN recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal to seek support for the plan to seek statehood at the UN General Assembly in September, although membership of a new state must be endorsed by the Security Council, where it could be vetoed by the US and others. But Rosenthal bluntly rejected the idea of the Palestinian initiative going to the General Assembly. “No, it will not be supported by the Netherlands,” Rosenthal told reporters, according to AP. Instead, Rosenthal called for a resumption of “direct negotiations, right now” between Israel and the Palestinians. The Netherlands is a strong supporter of Israel, but also sends millions in development aid each year to the Palestinian Authority. Abbas said he hoped the Netherlands could play a role within the European Union in supporting the peace process. On Wednesday, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, whose country will hold the rotating EU presidency for the next six months, said the 27-nation bloc is working on a common position to take if the UN is asked to recognise a Palestinian state. Any common European stance would depend on a possible resolution’s final wording, Sikorski said. However, key member states already appear divided. France has said it will support Palestinian statehood if negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians do not restart by September. But countries like Germany or Italy - and now the Netherlands - are likely to oppose any such resolution.