The PLO will submit a draft resolution to the UN Security Council later this month calling for an end date to Israel’s 47-year occupation, a senior official said Tuesday.

The text, which the PLO has been preparing for weeks, is expected to be vetoed by permanent member the United States.

But officials in Ramallah have said that will not deter them after round upon round of failed peace talks with Israel.

“No other solution has been proposed by the United States” to achieve peace and the establishment of a Palestinian state, senior PLO official Wassel Abu Yusef told AFP.

“The US administration is pushing to resume bilateral negotiations, even while it’s clear that these have failed throughout the last few years.”

The last round of talks broke down in April after nine months of fruitless US-brokered meetings which were overshadowed by persistent Israeli settlement building on occupied Palestinian land.

The Palestinians have been under intense pressure not to push forward with the Security Council resolution — including with alleged threats of cuts to US aid.

PLO secretary general Yasser Abed Rabbo had said last month that the text would be submitted by the end of October but that target date passed.

The Palestinians have said that if Washington does wield its veto, they will seek membership of the International Criminal Court, where they could sue Israeli officials over alleged war crimes in the occupied territories.

Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and the Syrian Golan Heights in 1967.

It has since built hundreds of illegal Jewish-only settlements and transferred over 500,000 settlers to East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

In 1980, Israel’s parliament passed a law annexing East Jerusalem and declaring sovereignty over the entire city.

(Ma’an and agencies – www.maannews.net)