Founding of state, inter-reconciliation top Palestinians' agenda in 2011

Palestinian officials said Friday that establishing an independent Palestinian state in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 and reaching an inter- reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah will take priority over any other matter in the new year.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian leadership is preparing to file to the United Nations Security Council to obtain an international recognition of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

The Palestinian-Israeli direct peace talks suspended on Oct. 2, one month after it was launched in Washington. The talks were suspended after Israel refused to freeze settlement building and after the United States, the peace process sponsor, failed to convince Israel to halt settlement.

Hana Amira, an official of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Xinhua that the Palestinians would focus in the upcoming stage on convincing the international community that Israel is "stubborn" in respecting the international efforts to achieve peace in the region.

"We are working on forming an international lobby that pressures on Israel to respect and deal with the international resolutions that give guarantees to the Palestinian people their right of self-determination and establishing their independent state," Amira said.

The Palestinians have finally conceived that it was a "mistake" to continue with the peace talks sponsored by the United States, he added.

Several Latin American countries have recognized the independent Palestinian state, which was condemned by the United States and Israel saying that it violate the signed peace treaties between Israel and the Palestinians.

Allam Jarar, a political science professor at al-Najah University in Nablus in the West Bank, told Xinhua that the Palestinians depended on a new strategy to ensure the establishment of an independent state, which relies on diplomatic activities and a strong international role instead of the talks.


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