NEW YORK, November 22, 2007 (WAFA)-The Permanent Observer for Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, said that there had not been any significant change on the ground regarding the suffering of Palestinians.

In a statement on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the Security Council’s adoption of resolution 242 (1967), Mansour added that incursions had continued in Gaza and the West Bank, including in villages that had demonstrated peacefully against the separation wall. Scores of individuals were injured weekly by the Israeli army for non-violent resistance.

"There were now 560 checkpoints in the West Bank and more than 11,000 Palestinian prisoners in jail. Israeli authorities occasionally released a few hundred prisoners, but then detained a few hundred more. The isolation of the Gaza Strip continued, suffocating the local population and exacerbating the difficult humanitarian situation there," he added.

Palestinian officials were engaging in intense negotiations with their Israeli counterparts to prepare for the United States-sponsored meeting, to begin on 26 November, in Annapolis, Maryland, he said.

He urged that a peace treaty be negotiated in a reasonable time period, such as six months, and he appealed to all of Palestine’s friends, especially those with good relations with Israel, to exert all efforts to allow both sides to evolve such a document that addressed the conflict’s core issues.

The Palestinian leadership had been receiving many Heads of State and foreign ministers recently, and it appreciated their efforts to help reach common language for a peace treaty, he noted. President Abbas would also attend an important meeting of Arab foreign ministers to decide how to collectively advance a clear Arab strategy in Annapolis on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative.

Mansour concluded that the Annapolis meeting came at a significant time, during the fortieth anniversary of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and adoption of General Assembly resolution 181, adding that the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved, by 172 votes in favour to 5 against, with 5 abstentions, a resolution affirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.