THE UN special coordinator’s report seems to have hit the nail on the head when it points to the hurdles Israel’s occupation of the West Bank has placed in the way of Palestine’s march towards statehood. Released on Tuesday, the report credits the Palestinian Authority with building institutions and services required of a sovereign state. It specifically refers to the progress the PA has made in developing governance, rule of law, infrastructure and health and social services to a level expected of a state. That the PA has achieved this remarkable progress in spite of the limitations built into the situation because of Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank shows the Palestinian people’s resolve to live in peace and freedom on their soil in spite of the odds they have been facing since the carving of the state of Israel out of their land by the UN in 1948. The UN report will have no impact on the Arab-Israeli conflict because the world body has displayed no resolve to implement two of its key resolutions (242 and 338) which categorically call for an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories. The UN failed to act even when it was operating in a bipolar world. Now, with the world body under American pressure, it matters little what its special coordinator says about the PA’s good work shortly before the donors meet. The UN has censured Israel several times for trying to alter the West Bank’s Arab-Islamic character, and America, which is sympathetic to Israel’s interest, has publicly committed itself to a two-state solution. But Israel has brazenly defied all American pressure and has continued its settlement activity in and around Jerusalem after having annexed the holy city in violation of the two UN resolutions. With the US Congress often labelled occupied territory, Israel has little to worry about.