WEST BANK: Palestinians use Obama speech in U.N. statehood campaign

Record ID: 345312

  • Title: WEST BANK: Palestinians use Obama speech in U.N. statehood campaign
  • Date: 8th September 2011
  • Summary: EXTERIOR OF PALESTINE BROADCASTING CORPORATION SIGN ON DOOR INSIDE PALESTINE BROADCASTING CORPORATION (PBC) READING: 'NEWS DEPARTMENT' VARIOUS OF WORKERS AT PBC IN THE NEWS DEPARTMENT VARIOUS OF MAN MONITORING INCOMING AND OUTGOING VIDEO MORE OF WORKERS IN NEWS DEPARTMENT
  • Embargoed: 23rd September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Palestinian Territory, Occupied
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1CLY6BRG0XS9S1BU1I36E9Z17
  • Story Text: The Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation and the Voice of Palestine national radio recently launched a media campaign, supporting the Palestinian leadership's planned bid for recognition of statehood at the United Nations in New York, towards the end of September.
    U.S. President Barack Obama is an unlikely participant in the Palestinian campaign to drum up support for the bid -- a diplomatic move opposed by both his administration and Israel.
    But words spoken by Obama during last year's U.N. General Assembly, in which he alluded to the prospect of a Palestinian state joining the world body, have been pulled from the archives as part of the official media campaign launched this week.
    'When we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that can lead to a new member of the United Nations, an independent, sovereign state of Palestine living in peace with Israel,' Obama said in his 2010 speech.
    Described by U.S. officials as no more than an expression of hope, the Obama remarks are one factor cited by Palestinians when explaining their push for U.N. membership at this year's General Assembly, which is due to convene in a few weeks.
    'If he said it, he must have meant it,' Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said during a 36-second radio clip.
    The 26 adverts that are continually aired on the radio, in six different languages amongst them Hebrew and Russian, are aimed at the Israeli public. The adverts can be heard playing on almost every media outlet available for the Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
    The Obama advert is a reflection of Palestinian frustration with the Obama administration. The Palestinians feel Obama let them down, notably by failing to convince Israel to halt Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem -- part of the territories where they seek an independent state.
    Ahmad Zaki the head of the Palestinian national radio told Reuters on Tuesday (September 6) that they hope the US will not use their veto to oppose something that has wide international support.
    "There are a number of clips that are being used (in campaign) some using the voice of the American President Obama, whom we remind of what he said in the United Nations in the year 2010 that he hopes that there will be a State of Palestine. Therefore when the Palestinian side goes to the United Nations there should be a great international support for this and the Americans should adopt this idea and not use the veto," Zaki told Reuters.
    The U.S. president's words are being used alongside excerpts of speeches by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as part of the campaign. Verses penned by Mahmoud Darwish, the national poet who died in 2008, also feature.
    "These spots (radio clips) where taken from the Palestinian political discourse from the speeches of the President Mahmoud Abbas from the position of the Palestinian Liberation Organization as well as the position of the Palestinian National Authority and its political direction," Zaki said.
    At the Palestine Broadcasting Cooperation, the government television station, ten TV adverts have been produced to promote the same agenda.
    Every time the program on the station goes to a break, one of the adverts rolls. The adverts are usually accompanied with Palestinian nationalistic songs or the sound of the Palestinian national anthem.
    'We are going to the Assembly, we are going to the United Nations, we are going to the international legitimacy, we are going to the greatest stage in the world - This is not a unilateral move sirs, unilateralism is what Israel is committing,' an advert with the voice of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says.
    The United States, Israel's closest ally, opposes the Palestinian U.N. initiative on the grounds that it is unhelpful to its Middle East diplomacy, which is still focused on bringing about a resumption of face-to-face peace talks.
    U.S. opposition in the Security Council will thwart any Palestinian bid for full U.N. membership, though the Palestinians could still secure an upgrade in their status to a "non-member state" by presenting a General Assembly resolution.
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