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Source: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=415804
UN Statehood Bid 'Threatens Palestinian Rights'
(Ma'an News Agency) The Palestinian team responsible for preparing the UN initiative in September has been given an independent legal opinion that warns of risks involved with its plan to join the UN. An initiative to transfer the Palestinians' representation from the PLO to a state will terminate the legal status held by the PLO in the UN since 1975 that it is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, according to the document. A change in status would severely disenfranchise the right of refugees to return to their homes and properties from which they were displaced. The seven-page opinion, obtained by Ma'an, was submitted to the Palestinian side by Guy Goodwin-Gill, a professor of public international law at Oxford University and a member of the team that won the 2004 non-binding judgment by the International Court of Justice that the route of Israel's wall was illegal. The Palestinian team, headed by Saeb Erekat, has been preparing an initiative to replace the PLO at the UN, substituting it with the State of Palestine as the representative of the Palestinian people.