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Abbas: Israel forced Palestine to seek UN membership
8:54 AM
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has said that the Palestinians' ambitions for membership of the United Nations was forced upon them by Israel's refusal to stop settlement building and end its occupation. "We are going to the United Nations because we are forced to, it is not a unilateral action," Abbas said, Aljazeera.net reported. "What is unilateral is Israeli settlement," – he added. PA authorities plan to seek recognition as an independent state this September, when the UN holds its General Assembly.They insist to be recognized along a border that predates the 1967 war between Israel and neighbouring countries, including the territory of the occupied West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.