Palestinian Application for UN Membership

Haaretz has it and it can be read here. The application states that it is being submitted based on Palestinian's natural, legal and historic rights and based on UN General Assembly resolution 181. It is directed to the UN General Secretary, Ban Ki-moon and reads:

Excellency,

I have the profound honor, on behalf of the Palestinian people, to submit this application of the State of Palestine for admission to membership in the United Nations.

This application for membership is being submitted based on the Palestinian people's natural, legal and historic rights and based on United Nations General Assembly resolution 181 (II) of 29 November 1947 as well as the Declaration of Independence of the State of Palestine of 15 November 1988 and the acknowledgement by the General Assembly of this Declaration in resolution 43/177 of 15 December 1988.

In this connection, the State of Palestine affirms its commitment to the achievement of a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the vision of two-States living side by side in peace and security, as endorsed by the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly and the international community as a whole and based on international law and all relevant United Nations resolutions.

For the purpose of this application for admission, a declaration made pursuant to rule 58 of the Provisional Rules of Procedure of the Security Council and rule 134 of the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly is appended to this letter.

I should be grateful if you would transmit this letter of application and the declaration to the Presidents of the Security Council and the General Assembly as soon as possible.

Mahmoud Abbas
President of the State of Palestine
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization

Resolution 181, you may remember divided mandatory Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state. It reads in part: 

Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem, set forth in part III of this plan, shall come into existence in Palestine two months after the evacuation of the armed forces of the mandatory Power has been completed but in any case not later than 1 October 1948.

In a letter accompanying the application, Abbas writes:

. . . the vast majority of the international community has stood in support of our inalienable rights as a people, including to statehood, by according bilateral recognition of of the State of Palestine on the basis of the 4 June 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem, as its capital . . . .

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. . . the Palestinian leadership stands committed to resume negotiations on all final status issues -- Jerusalem, the Palestine refugees, settlements, borders, security and water -- on the basis of the internationally endorsed terms of reference, including . . . . the Quartet Road Map, which specifically requires a freeze of all Israeli settlement activities.