By Anees Barghouthy
RAMALLAH
The Palestinian Authority (PA) will discuss the possibility of signing the Rome Statute at an urgent meeting this evening in Al-Mukata, the seat of the Palestinian presidency in the occupied West Bank, a senior Palestinian official said Wednesday.
"Officials will agree on the next steps to be taken by the Palestinian leadership after the rejection of a draft resolution setting a three-year deadline for ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory," the official told The Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity.
He said the Palestinian leadership had decided to join international organizations immediately after the UN Security Council (UNSC) had failed to approve a draft resolution setting a deadline for ending the Israeli occupation.
"PA President Mahmoud Abbas will sign the Rome Statute tonight or in the next few days," the official said.
He said that joining international organizations did not mean that the Palestinians would not submit another, similar draft resolution to the UNSC "very soon."
"I can confirm that the Palestinians will go back to the UNSC," the official said, noting that an amended version of the draft resolution would not abdicate the rights of the Palestinian people.
The UNSC on Tuesday rejected a draft resolution calling for an end to Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory within three years.
The motion, submitted on Monday by Jordan after it was agreed to by Arab states, failed to obtain the minimum nine votes required from the 15-member UNSC, with both the U.S. and Australia voting against the proposal.
The U.K., Nigeria, Rwanda, South Korea and Lithuania all abstained from voting, while Jordan, France, Russia, China, Argentina, Chad, Chile and Luxembourg all voted in favor.
The resolution had set the end of 2017 as the deadline for Israel to fully withdraw from occupied territory and to declare East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders.
The Palestinian official, meanwhile, described the countries that voted against the draft resolution at the UNSC as those who "work against peace and the rights of the Palestinian people."
"We [the Palestinian leadership] worked hard during the past two months with our Arab brothers and allies to secure the votes of nine UNSC member states," he said.
He added, however, that these efforts had failed to bear fruit – a state of affairs he described as "very disappointing" for the Palestinian leadership and people.
The official noted that the U.S. had asked the Palestinian leadership to postpone submission of the draft resolution until after Israel's upcoming general election, slated for March of next year.
"But the Palestinians decided not to postpone any of their plans for 2015," the official said. "They decided to make the New Year one of international organizations, including the International Criminal Court."
He said the Palestinians had done everything possible to avoid resorting to international organizations, noting that the outcome of Tuesday's vote at the UNSC had left the Palestinian leadership with little choice.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas had earlier threatened to sever all forms of coordination with Israel and apply for membership in the International Criminal Court if the UNSC failed to adopt the draft resolution.
Direct, U.S.-sponsored Palestinian-Israeli peace talks ground to a halt in April after Israel failed to honor a pledge to release a group of Palestinian prisoners despite earlier promises to do so.
The roots of the current conflict between Palestinians and Israelis date back to 1917, when the British government – in the now-famous "Balfour Declaration" – called for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state in a move never recognized by the international community.
Palestinians want a state of their own in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, with East Jerusalem – currently occupied by Israel – as its capital.
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