The step that Mahmoud Abbas took April 1 for Palestine's accession to 15 UN bodies — important, however timid — was necessary to bring forward a legal basis for achieving consequential results in the ongoing engagement with Israel. This step, in addition to being necessary, needs to be complemented by activating the resolution of the UN General Assembly that clearly and unequivocally recognizes Palestine as a “non-member observer state” at the United Nations.
Such recognition affirms a Palestinian state, and because it is clearly occupied, also defines the legally binding basis from which further negotiations should proceed. Of course, recognition entails access to agencies, but it now behooves the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to activate this particular resolution and negotiate on the basis that Palestine is indeed an occupied state. This of course will be opposed by Israel, give that since June 1967 it has denied this legal reality and thus has never acknowledged its status as an occupying power.
