Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has handed over a request to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, asking the United Nations to admit the state of Palestine as a full member.
In his address, Abbas said he was ready to return to negotiations based on the 1967 borders, saying he did not want to 'isolate or delegitimize' Israel.
But he maintained previous peace talks were "smashed against the rocks of the positions of the Israeli government, which quickly dashed the hopes raised by the launch of negotiations last September".
Palestinians across the West Bank celebrated the formal submission of their bid to become a United Nations member state, despite opposition from the United States and Israel.
In a sign of mounting tension earlier on Friday, one Palestinian man died after being shot by Israeli troops who intervened in a clash between villagers and Jewish settlers south of the West Bank city of Nablus.
At the Qalandia checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem, the Israeli army fired tear gas into the crowds, with a military spokeswoman saying "around 100 rioters" were throwing stones at the troops.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that clashes also broke out in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras Al-Amud.
In Nabi Saleh village, protesters chanted support for the UN bid, but activists also burnt a picture of Barack Obama, the US president, who has vowed to veto the membership bid at the UN Security Council.
Full membership bid
Full UN membership can only be bestowed by the Security Council where Abbas' request will almost certainly be derailed, either by a failure to win the needed nine votes in the 15-member body or, if the necessary majority is obtained, by a veto.
The Palestinians say they are seeking full UN membership to underscore their right to statehood, but have left open the option of a lesser alternative - a non-member observer state.
Such status would be granted by the General Assembly, where the Palestinians maintain broad support.
Siding with Israel, Obama has said a Palestinian state can only be established as a result of negotiations, and that there is no short-cut to Palestinian independence.
Abbas has said negotiations remain his preference, but that he will not resume talks - frozen since 2008 - unless Israel agrees to the pre-1967 frontier as a baseline and freezes all settlement construction on occupied land.
'Palestine freedom'
The three main Palestinian newspapers also dedicated their front pages to the bid, and the inside pages were dotted with paid advertisements from individuals and businesses expressing their support for Abbas and the UN move.
Another cartoon in the paper used the famous image of US soldiers raising their flag during the battle of Iwo Jima, replacing the US flag with the Palestinian one and the soldiers with Palestinians, some in traditional garb.
In the Gaza Strip, however, life was continuing as normal with no sign of any activity to mark the UN bid.
Speaking hours before the Abbas address, senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the UN bid would not bring independence.
"Our Palestinian people do not beg for a state ... States are not built upon UN resolutions. States liberate their land and establish their entities," he said.
PHOTO CAPTION
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas holds up a copy of the letter that he had just delivered to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon requesting full United Nations representation for a Palestinian state, during his address before the 66th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 23, 2011.
Agencies