PLO flag (archive)
PLO flag (archive)Flash 90

The PLO Executive Committee is calling for a boycott of “Israeli settlements” as part of a series of anti-Israel resolutions agreed upon during a meeting this past Thursday at the headquarters in Ramallah of Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

In a statement released after the meeting, the PLO called for a total boycott of "Israel's colonial settlement", to “provide international protection for the Palestinian people in the state of occupied Palestine”, to apply the Fourth Geneva from 1949, to prosecute Israel for war crimes and convene an international peace conference with full powers to implement an independent State of Palestine within the borders of June 4, 1967 with its capital in eastern Jerusalem.

The PLO Executive Committee also called on the PA to promote the submission of a draft resolution to the UN Security Council confirming the illegality of the “settlements” and the alleged “terrorism” by Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria.

The PA has in recent years several times initiated unilateral resolutions at the UN Security Council which seek to condemn Israel over its construction in Judea and Samaria and force a peace settlement on the Jewish state.

In October, both Egypt and the United States warned the PA leadership not to advance any moves at the UN Security Council until after the U.S. presidential election.

Now that the election has ended, there have been concerns that President Barack Obama, freed of re-election concerns, will advance such resolutions or break with American protocol and refrain from vetoing them if they are voted upon before he leaves office.

A group of 88 senators recently urged Obama to maintain the long-standing U.S. policy of vetoing one-sided UN resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian Arab issue.

Similarly, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton last week called on Obama not to not take any actions before leaving office that could hurt Israel at the UN.