Palestinian disappointment

Dr. Samir Awwad is a professor of international relations at Birzeit University near Ramallah. He told Xinhua that the U.S. veto would not deter the Palestinians from continuing to seek International support and recognition.

Palestinian Fatah supporters take part in a rally to support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to protest the U.S. veto, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on Feb. 20, 2011. About 2000 Palestinians demonstrated Sunday against the U.S veto in the United Nations Security Council against a draft resolution condemning Jewish settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories. [Fadi Arouri/Xinhua]

Awwad argued that following the vote, the U.S. has lost its ability to be an honest broker between Palestinians and Israelis. The Palestinians now no longer view the U.S. as impartial mediator, but rather as being squarely on Israel's side in the negotiations, according to Awwad.

Asked what would be the next step for the Palestinians after the veto, Awwad predicted that the Palestinians will opt for support from international law and international organizations and that they "will not be focused on a peace process led by the U.S."

"We will run the whole mile and see what we can achieve, and if nothing works we will demand that the Quartet recognize a Palestinian state with the 1967 border," Awwad said. "If that does not happen because of U.S. objection, then we will stop dealing at all with the Quartet," he said.

Awwad said the Palestinians would bide their time and see how far the diplomatic attempts to gain recognition could go, citing recent letters of recognition issued by South-American countries for an independent Palestinian state to be declared in 2012. Awwad hoped that in the end, 130 nations would offer similar letters of intent.

Commenting on Ben-Meir's remarks that the Palestinians should negotiate instead of seeking recognition, Awwad said that "the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has been waiting for almost 20 years for a peace process to yield any fruits."

He pointed out that the PNA "has signed the Oslo agreement with Israel, which stated that the transition period is going to be five years."

Awwad added that since the start of the peace process, Israeli settlement construction has almost doubled, taking up land, water and other resources that the Palestinians had hoped to use in the future state.

"The peace process, so to speak, gave us nothing," Awwad said, "So yes, we are looking for recognition from the international community because the Quartet, as well as the government of Israel, showed bad faith when it comes to peace."