Palestinians stepping up statehood bid, Israel’s UN envoy warns

Jerusalem is bracing for a series of Palestinian statehood initiatives in various international forums, including resolutions at the United Nations Security Council, Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said Thursday.

“The Palestinians are increasing their involvement and activity in the international arena in a bid to internationalize the conflict,” he told The Times of Israel. There are several initiatives calling for the creation of a Palestinian state circulating among UN diplomats, and while they recently received less exposure due to the world’s focus on fighting the Islamic State terror group, these resolutions are anything but forgotten, he indicated.

“The [November 13] terror attack in Paris focused the world’s attention on the fight against IS, but we are slowly seeing now that other topics are returning to the global agenda, and our conflict with the Palestinians is at the center,” Danon said.

Last year, both France and New Zealand toyed with the idea of proposing UN Security Council resolutions to advance the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Paris’ bid would call for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and the creation of a Palestinian state there within a few years.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius appears to recently have abandoned the idea of a Security Council move, as earlier this month he called for a regional peace summit to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If this conference fails to yield progress, he threatened, France would unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state. Jerusalem rejected his proposal, while Ramallah responded to it more favorably.

Wellington’s proposal is said to call for an Israeli settlement freeze in return for a Palestinian commitment to halt its proceedings at the International Criminal Court, where it has made attempts to see Israel prosecuted for war crimes for its activities in the Gaza Strip.

In addition, Ramallah is striving to join additional world bodies and treaties, as seen by its bid to accede to the global climate change convention the world agreed upon last December in Paris.

“My task as Israel’s ambassador to the UN is to worry and to be vigilant against all these initiatives that are being prepared. I assess that this year, the Palestinians will increase their activities in the internal arena,” Danon said.

Rather than accept the Palestinians’ unilateral moves, Danon called on the international community to issue “clear and uncompromising” calls on Ramallah to stop incitement against Jews and Israelis. “I believe that halting incitement will lead to a decrease in the violence in the area. Then it’ll be possible to call for renewed [peace] negotiations.”

Speaking to The Times of Israel during a short visit to Israel to attend a Foreign Ministry conference for Israeli ambassadors, Danon also discussed his relationships with representatives of other states. He said his relationship with the American ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, is “excellent” and that they have met “very many times, more than one can count.”

Power is due to visit Israel next week.

Danon was effusive about his conversations with diplomats from Arab states: “These secret meetings are fascinating; you can see the enormous gap between their public statements and what they say behind closed doors,” he said. “We have much cooperation in many different areas.”

Since Israel and the Sunni Arab states “face the same threats, this cooperation serves both sides,” he added. “The State of Israel has great technological capabilities which we share with allies and parties whose interests are identical to ours.”

On Saturday, hours after his return to New York, Danon is scheduled to attend a Shabbat prayer service in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Park East Synagogue. There he is likely to meet UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is the event’s guest of honor.

This week, Danon and Ban argued bitterly over the latter’s comments on the current wave of Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians, which Israeli officials argued justified terrorism.