Palestine seeking two-year UN deadline to end Israeli occupation

Palestinians say they will seek UN vote on resolution to end Israeli occupation

Palestinian officials say they plan to push for a UN security council vote this week on a resolution setting a November 2016 deadline for ending Israeli occupation.

The announcement came late on Sunday after a meeting between the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, officials from his Fatah movement and the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Officials say the Jordanian-backed resolution is to be submitted by Wednesday. Another proposal, by France, would set a time limit of two years for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Israel opposes the resolutions. The US secretary of state, John Kerry, is meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Europe to try to find a compromise.

US officials say they are not opposed to a new security council resolution but that none of the drafts that have been offered so far are acceptable.

However, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country may face a “diplomatic offensive” against it that could fuel radical Islam in the Middle East.

Netanyahu rejected all talk of withdrawing from East Jerusalem and the West Bank within two years on Sunday, saying pulling out now would bring "Islamic extremists to the suburbs of Tel Aviv and to the heart of Jerusalem".

Sunday’s comments come a day before Netanyahu’s trip to Europe where he will meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and urge international leaders to oppose U.N. Security Council resolutions regarding Israel’s borders and its treatment of Palestinians.

“Now we also face the possibility of a diplomatic offensive, an attempt to compel us by means of U.N. decisions to withdraw to the 1967 lines within two years. This will lead Islamic extremists to the outskirts of Tel Aviv and the heart of Jerusalem,” he said.

The US, Israel's closest ally, has consistently used its UN veto power to block moves it sees as anti-Israel, but US officials said they drew a distinction between a unilateral step, and an effort to draw up a multilateral resolution at the UN Security Council, which would have the backing of many nations.