Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, gave his orders to the Palestinian Authority (P.A), Sunday, to start issuing Palestinian Passports, ID Cards, Postage Stamps and License Plates carrying “State Of Palestine”, instead of the Palestinian Authority.Abbas said that this decision is an implementation of the UN General Assembly November 29 vote that raised the status of Palestine to an Observer State, thus recognizing Palestine as an occupied state.
A statement issued by Abbas revealed that this decision is part of the ongoing efforts to establish an independent state, a state that governs its people and has sovereignty on its lands and natural resources, and as a strategic shift towards the establishment of an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Since its establishment following the Oslo peace agreement that was signed between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1993, and the following agreements, the P.A. was only considered an Authority and not a state.
In his recent decision, Abbas instructed the Palestinian Ministerial Cabinet to conduct all needed modifications on laws, documents, passports, ID cards, postage stamps, and all official documents so that they clearly state “The State of Palestine” within the coming two months.
The decision also includes creating a special program for “National Numbers” to all Palestinian, wherever they are, in order to clearly state their nationality in all documents.
Israel and the United States led an international campaign against the P.A after it decided to head to the UN, while the White House stopped all financial aid to the P.A and Israel stopped the transfer of Tax money it collects on behalf of the Palestinians on West Bank border terminals as the P.A has no control over borders.
The Israeli Prime Minister and his extremist coalition partners also decided to build thousands of units for Jewish settlers in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied West Bank.
Although the construction and expansion of illegal settlements have been a policy of every Israeli government, the current government claims that its recent decision was made in response to the Palestinian move at the United Nations.
