RAMALLAH, April 9 (Saba) -- Palestinian officials launched a campaign of collecting one million Palestinian signatures on a petition that urges U.S. President Barack Obama to help ending the Israeli occupation, Chinese News Agency (Xinhua) reported on Friday.

Sabri Seidam, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is the official who made the initiative, which called on Obama to help ending the occupation and establishing the independent Palestinian state.

"Today we launched the campaign to collect one million signatures on the internet," Seidam told Xinhua, adding "As soon as we have all the signatures, the document will be sent directly to President Obama."

He also said that signatures will be collected through local websites as well as short messages that will be sent through cellular phones all over the Palestinian territories.

"The petition is directed to President Obama and will call him to give the Palestinians their legitimate rights of ending the occupation and establishing their independent state and live in peace side-by-side with Israel," he said.

The United States has been exerting efforts to bridge the gaps between Israel and the Palestinians and resume the peace talks, which had been stalled since December 2008, due to Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank.

"After decades of suffering and confiscating our rights, the longest ever military occupation in the modern history must be ended as immediate as possible and a Palestinian state must be established," said the petition.

Seidam said that the campaign "is basically based on using the internet and the modern technologies to collect the signatures on a massive letter sent by the Palestinian people to the president of the United States."
Saba