Israel has threatened to take "unilateral" action over a Palestinian bid to join 15 UN agencies, including the Geneva Conventions.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made the announcement, which prompted scorn from U.S. and Israeli officials, last week.

"The Palestinians' threats to appeal to the UN will not affect us," stated Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "The Palestinians have much to lose by this unilateral move. They will achieve a state only by direct negotiations, not by empty statements and not by unilateral moves."

"These will only push a peace agreement farther away and unilateral steps on their part will be met with unilateral steps on our part," the Israeli leader stated.

Critics pointed to such moves as showing the farce of the so-called peace talks.

Mike Coogan of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation previously told Common Dreams that "it says a lot about a peace process if it has supposedly been imperiled by Palestinians signing international treaties, most of which protect human rights, not by Israel's colonization and killing."

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