adminefforts to reach a peace deal explaining why he had pressed his bid for UN membership of his state.
“All of these sincere efforts and endeavors undertaken by international parties were repeatedly smashed against the rocks of the positions of the Israeli government, which quickly dashed the hopes raised by the launch of negotiations last September,” he told the UN General Assembly.
The Palestinian leader won huge applause and a standing ovation from some of the assembly as he entered the hall shortly after asking the UN to admit the state of Palestine.
There was also applause when he paid tribute to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians packed into the centre of the West Bank city of Ramallah yesterday to celebrate the formal submission of their bid to become a UN member state.
Waving Palestinian flags, the exuberant crowd chanted “Palestine 194” in reference to their bid to become the 194th member state of the United Nations.
Across the West Bank, giant television screens were set up in city squares so residents could watch Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas deliver a historic address to the 193 member states of the UN General Assembly.
Crowds began to mass in Ramallah as the sun broke through clouds left behind by an earlier storm, shortly before Abbas submits the bid to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at 1535 GMT in New York.
His speech was expected at around 1630 GMT, after which the Palestinian religious affairs ministry had directed mosques to issue calls “thanking Allah and asking him to help president Abbas to fulfil our people’s dreams.”
Near the Muqataa, Abbas’s presidential headquarters in Ramallah, flags of the more than 125 nations that have recognised a Palestinian state flew in a circle around a Palestinian flag.
During the day, the streets were largely empty, although small convoys of cars flying Palestinian flags and banners backing the UN bid drove around the Muqataa, honking their horns and cheering.
In the southern city of Hebron, the municipality building was draped with a three-metre (10-foot) poster of Abbas and “Palestine 194,” and similar decorations were hung in the northern cities of Nablus and Jenin.
At flashpoints across the West Bank, including in east Jerusalem, clashes broke out between Palestinians, Jewish settlers and Israeli troops.
In Qusra village south of Nablus, a Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli troops in clashes that erupted after settlers attacked the village, Palestinian hospital sources told AFP.
Issam Badran, 37, died after being hit in the neck by a live bullet, they said, while another three Palestinians were lightly wounded after being hit by rubber bullets.
Elsewhere, clashes were reported between Israeli soldiers and stonethrowers at the Qalandia checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem, as well as at a weekly protest in Nabi Saleh some 15 kilometres (nine miles) further north.
An Israeli activist at the scene said soldiers had fired tear gas and rubber bullets, wounding 28 people, including a French photographer.
The army confirmed it had used riot-dispersal means against “120 rioters” in the village but had no knowledge of injuries.
Palestinian state television carried wall-to-wall coverage of the diplomatic drama playing out in New York, running continuous interviews with local politicians and a series of slick adverts backing the UN membership push.
One featured a jigsaw puzzle of the globe as depicted in the UN logo – with a missing piece. From the side of the screen, a piece in the colours of the Palestinian flag flies across and slots into place, completing the puzzle.
The three main Palestinian newspapers dedicated their front pages to the campaign, and the inside pages were dotted with paid adverts from individuals and businesses expressing their support.
“The president delivers his speech to the General Assembly and presents a request for recognition of the state of Palestine,” read the headline in Al-Quds newspaper, emblazoned over pictures of pro-bid demonstrations.
Another cartoon in the paper used the famous image of US soldiers raising their flag during the battle of Iwo Jima, replacing the US flag with the Palestinian one and the soldiers with Palestinians, some in traditional garb.
Al-Ayyam’s headline read: “The president presents a request for full membership for Palestine in front of the world,” while on the back, a cartoon showed Abbas at the UN podium shouting into a loudspeaker: “Freedom for Palestine.”
In the Gaza Strip, however, life was continuing as normal with no sign of any activity to mark the UN bid, which has not been backed by the territory’s Hamas rulers.
Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya denounced the move in remarks to reporters after yesterday prayers.
“What we see happening in the halls of the United Nations is an affront to the dignity of the Palestinian people,” he said. “The Palestinian people do not beg for their state.”
The United States said it will use its veto in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to block a resolution backing an independent Palestinian state, a decision that will please Israel, but won’t come for free, analysts told Xinhua Wednesday.
The Palestinians are said to have secured the support of at least six members, including Russia, China, Lebanon, Brazil, South Africa and India, according to local media. Colombia and Germany, both of whom maintain strong ties with Israel and the US, have pledged to vote against the Palestinian bid.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, while said to be inclined to abstain, is reportedly being pressured by the Foreign Office not to do so, Israeli officials said.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan pledged to abstain following a meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in New York, Barak’s office said in a statement Tuesday night. – AFP-Xinhua.
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