Palestinians continued this week to rally support for their upcoming bid for statehood within the corridors of the United Nations. On June 17, President Mahmoud Abbas called on countries of the European Union to recognize a Palestinian state. In a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Abbas said the Palestinian position was to “resume the peace process" with Israel. However, he also said the leadership expected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop settlement construction, especially in Jerusalem before negotiations could be resumed.

Ashton also met with Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah and Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in west Jerusalem. Lieberman, known for his right wing extremist views, told the European policy chief that if the Palestinians did not retract their pursuit of statehood in the UN, Israel would renounce past agreements including Oslo.

"The unilateral move at the UN is the end of the Oslo Accords and would be a violation of all agreements that we have signed until now," Lieberman said. "Israel would not be obligated to the agreements that it has signed with the Palestinians over the past 18 years." Additionally, Lieberman said there was “zero chance” for negotiations to resume because of Abbas’ stances. "Abbas does not want an agreement, but rather confrontation with Israel," Lieberman said.

For its part, Israel is doing its best to foil the expected Palestinian move at the UN in September. On June 15, Netanyahu said his government was aimed at rallying the support and votes of 30-50 countries to stand with it in opposing the Palestinians’ bid for statehood. “It will not create an opposing majority,” he admitted, “but it will balance out the bid's potential support," he said.

"Peace will not mean Israel is forfeiting land, but rather that the Palestinians are forfeiting the desire to destroy Israel,” he maintained.

Netanyahu found at least one man on board, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who Netanyahu thanked on June 13 for supporting him in opposing the Palestinian move. During a joint press conference in Rome, Berlesconi said, “We don't believe a unilateral solution can help peace. I believe peace can only be reached with a common effort, that is, with negotiations.”

Palestinians say that is not a problem. On June 12, the PLO stated that the leadership’s UN bid in no way contradicts with a return to negotiations and that if Israel provides the right conditions, negotiations could resume.

In the meantime, Palestinians have other pressing issues to attend to. The awaited transitional government is yet to be formed and announced, with numerous bumps in the road. While Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said on June 16 that a new unity government would be announced on Tuesday, June 21, there are still unresolved issues between Hamas and Fateh, namely the person to fill the prime minister’s office. The only thing Hamdan disclosed in this regard was that any decision on a new premier would be made “consensually” with no preference from one party or the other.

The announcement comes days after Fateh nominated current prime minister Salam Fayyad to resume his role in the upcoming unity government. Hamas vehemently rejected, saying it did not want Fayyad in any government post. On June 14, Fayyad took the high road, saying he would not “impose himself” on anyone, adding that the new government would have to be one based on national conciliation.

In other news, the Turkish ship the Mavi Marmara announced on June 17 that it would not be joining the flotilla to the Gaza Strip in the next few weeks. The Mavi was attacked last year in May by Israeli navy commandos on its way to Gaza, leading to the deaths of nine Turkish citizens.

"After the damage caused to the Mavi Marmara [during the raid], we are not in a position to go to sea," said Bulent Yildirim, the president of the Islamic charity IHH which owns the ship. It is not clear when the remaining ships will set sail for Gaza with the aim of breaking Israel’s siege on the coastal strip.

Jewish settlers in the West Bank have wreaked havoc in a number of Palestinian areas this week including Al Mughayyir, a Ramallah-area village. On June 17, dozens of settlers set fire to farmland in the village, destroying up to 35 dunams of wheat.

On June 14, settlers also took control of 20 dunams of land from the Ramadin Bedouin tribe in the Hebron area and destroyed two major water tanks in southern Hebron. In the village of Fasayel in the Jordan Valley, Israeli forces destroyed Bedouin tents and animal sheds, claiming they were built illegally.

Finally, on June 17, Israeli authorities announced it would confiscate land from the villages of Ein Yabroud and Silwad in the West Bank to further expand the Ofrah settlement. Israel says the land takeover is “legal” since the land in question was originally confiscated by Jordanian authorities in 1966 before the Israeli occupation.