Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas is renewing his calls on the UN Security Council to pass a resolution that will set “a date for the ending of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and to provide international protection for Palestinians”, as he put it.

The PA’s permanent observer to the UN, Riyad Mansour, this week read a letter written by Abbas to the UN, in which the PA chairman expressed his regret over the lack of implementation of UN resolutions pertaining to the Palestinian people.

“The UN General Assembly, Security Council, Human Rights Council, various organizations and institutions of the United Nations, including the International Criminal Court, reached firm decisions in favor of the Palestinian cause, and we feel deep regret over the failure in the implementation of these decisions,” Abbas wrote in his letter.

Abbas added that Palestinian rights cannot be waived, and he warned about the situation in Jerusalem which, he claimed, could turn the conflict from a political and legal conflict to a religious one.

A year ago, the PA submitted a resolution to the UN which called for Israel to “end the occupation” – that is, to withdraw from Judea and Samaria – by 2017.

The draft resolution would have set a 12-month deadline for wrapping up negotiations on a final settlement and the end of 2017 as the time frame for completing an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria.

The resolution was put to a vote in the UN Security Council late last year, but failed to secure enough votes in favor to pass.

Abbas later said he would go to the UN again, and has continued his unilateral efforts against Israel by applying to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) and filing complaints of war crimes against Israel.