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.

The Palestinians have fallen into a trap created by a belief in the statement by the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat that the United States holds “99% of the cards” in the Middle East. This led to a process culminating in the Oslo Accords and subsequent agreements and leading Palestinians to think that exclusive US management of the peace process would probably expedite the achievement of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. It is clear, however, that this unilateral management was flawed, non-consequential and unable to achieve the sought-after objective of a two-state solution as a reasonable and just resolution to this conflict.

The step taken by Abbas is a partial corrective to the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian deadlock. It must, however, be followed by establishing a government for the observer state to feasibly render consequential negotiations, instead of the futile talks that have followed the 1993 Oslo Accords. The governing authority needs to cover Palestine as a whole — Gaza, East Jerusalem and West Bank. reconciliation between the authorities in the West Bank and Gaza would re-establish the credibility of unified representation of the Palestinian people and the legitimacy of the government that follows.