With negotiations coming to an end and the disappearance of all hopes of any progress in that route, the Palestinians have decided to seek the world’s support through the UN route. The moment seems ripe, because the international mood has swung significantly and perhaps decisively in the Palestinians’ favor.

Israel has lost the great support of its two traditional allies in the region. The Arab uprisings have ousted Hosni Mubarak from power in Egypt, and the interim government is more in tune with popular sentiments. These sentiments were evident last week, when a crowd stormed the Israeli embassy in Cairo, forcing the ambassador and staff members to flee the country.

Turkey, the other Israel ally, has dramatically turned around after the Israeli blitz on Gaza a couple of years ago and the 2010 Israeli attack on a Turkish ship trying to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza, in which nine Turkish citizens were killed.

Turkey has downgraded its relations with Israel and expelled the Israeli ambassador. Turkish Prime Minister Recap Tayyip Erdogan gave a rousing speech to Arab foreign ministers in Cairo last week, declaring that supporting the Palestinians to get statehood was an obligation and that the Palestinian flag must fly high at the UN.

Many prominent figures in Europe and even the US have spoken in favor of Palestine. Former Finnish president and Nobel laureate Martti Ahtisaari and European Commission’s former foreign policy chief Javier Solana wrote an article on 10 reasons why European countries should vote in favor of the Palestinians at the UN.

Former US president Jimmy Carter, too, has written on how Israel rejected Obama’s call for settlements freeze and a peace deal based on the pre-1967 borders, and why the subsequent withdrawal of the US from the peace process and US policy were interpreted by Palestinians and other Arabs as "acquiescing on the occupation and biased against them."

According to Carter, the UN vote in favor of Palestinian statehood should be followed by a new attempt by Europe, the US and the UN to mediate in renewed talks between Israelis and Palestinians. The alternative to this new effort will be "an expansion of hopelessness, animosity and probable violence."

And an IPS article by veteran UN observer Thalif Dean gives a broad analysis of the Palestinian move. It quotes Mouin Rabbani, of the Institute for Palestine Studies, as saying that two decades of negotiations have achieved nothing except further consolidation of Israeli control over the occupied territories, in large part because of consistent US support for Israeli impunity.

"The era in which the US and other Western powers profess support for the principle of Palestinian statehood while thoroughly undermining it in practice must come to an end," says Rabbani. "Supporting a Palestinian state provided none is established simply won't do anymore. It is therefore high time for an alternative and more effective approach to resolve this conflict. Given the failure of bilateral diplomacy, returning the question of Palestine to the multilateral forum of the UN is an essential first step …."

As the Palestinian issue moves to center stage at the UN, Palestinians plan to hold peaceful marches and rallies in the occupied territories to show support. It remains to be seen how the drama unfolds at the UN, and what happens after that.

The author is executive director of South Centre, a think tank of developing countries, based in Geneva.