Palestinians clash with Israeli police
- 13 years ago
Clashes break out in the West Bank as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas prepares to address the United Nations.
Young Palestinian men threw stones at Israeli police across the Ramallah-Jerusalem checkpoint.
Abbas is presenting an application for membership to the U.N. Security Council.
The United States and Israel fiercely oppose the move.
There is also criticism from Palestinians.
(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN REFUGEE LIVING IN GAZA, IMAD MAKDAD, SAYING:
"Abu Mazen went to the United Nations without consulting with the entirety of the Palestinian people, and with the Palestinian refugees, living here and abroad. He went on his own, had there been a discussion with the Palestinian people, he would have gone with more support and with a plan on what to do afterwards."
Hamas, who control Gaza, reject the bid. saying Palestinians should liberate their land, not beg for recognition.
(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HAMAS LEADER IN GAZA ISMAIL HANIYEH, SAYING:
"We are with the core principle of establishing a Palestinian state, the Palestinian people are fighting and making sacrificing to get a state, but this state will not come in the course of these compromises, this political blackmail and this political movement, which actually hurts the pride of the Palestinians people. We say liberation first, and then a state."
The U.N. estimates two-thirds of Gaza's 1.5 million population are refugees, driven out by Israel when the Jewish state was founded sixty years ago.
A Palestinian state within the 1967 borders would end the claim to land occupied in 1948.
Lily Grimes, Reuters
Young Palestinian men threw stones at Israeli police across the Ramallah-Jerusalem checkpoint.
Abbas is presenting an application for membership to the U.N. Security Council.
The United States and Israel fiercely oppose the move.
There is also criticism from Palestinians.
(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN REFUGEE LIVING IN GAZA, IMAD MAKDAD, SAYING:
"Abu Mazen went to the United Nations without consulting with the entirety of the Palestinian people, and with the Palestinian refugees, living here and abroad. He went on his own, had there been a discussion with the Palestinian people, he would have gone with more support and with a plan on what to do afterwards."
Hamas, who control Gaza, reject the bid. saying Palestinians should liberate their land, not beg for recognition.
(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HAMAS LEADER IN GAZA ISMAIL HANIYEH, SAYING:
"We are with the core principle of establishing a Palestinian state, the Palestinian people are fighting and making sacrificing to get a state, but this state will not come in the course of these compromises, this political blackmail and this political movement, which actually hurts the pride of the Palestinians people. We say liberation first, and then a state."
The U.N. estimates two-thirds of Gaza's 1.5 million population are refugees, driven out by Israel when the Jewish state was founded sixty years ago.
A Palestinian state within the 1967 borders would end the claim to land occupied in 1948.
Lily Grimes, Reuters