There has been a dearth of academic literature on the making of Palestinian foreign policy since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 1993. Even though the PA is prohibited from engaging in foreign relations by the Oslo agreements, the Palestinian leadership has engaged in foreign relations through the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). It would be fair to describe PA rule as authoritarian. There have not been presidential or legislative elections in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip for a decade. Gaza and Areas A and B in the West Bank resemble police states where opposition is violently suppressed. Then there is the Israeli occupation now in its 48th year and a dysfunctional administration teetering on the brink of collapse. Palestine’s foreign policy is largely the province of the PLO that is dominated by Fatah and that still resembles and functions as a national liberation organization. In the international arena the PLO still plays a significant role in the formation of Palestinian foreign policy particularly in UN institutions. This was explicitly recognized by the UN General Assembly on 29 November 2012 in the resolution that accorded Palestine observer state status in the UN system. Drawing on empirical research, interviews, and publically available documents, this paper seeks to explore and explain Palestine’s statehood strategy at the United Nations since 2011. Was President Abbas’s decision to seek a UN Security Council resolution on ending the occupation in December 2014 and to join the International Criminal Court later that month the result of public pressure or were they calculated moves that had been long in the making? In answering this question, this paper examines how the PLO forms its foreign policy in practice and the way in which foreign policy decisions are made in Ramallah. The roles of Palestine’s various ministries and departments and the way in which the PLO engages with outside actors are explored to shed light on the extent to which the Palestinian leadership takes into account Palestinian public opinion when it comes to formulating decisions in the international arena. It will be argued that although Palestinian public opinion is taken into account in formulating foreign policy decisions, it is not the most important factor. Other considerations—financial, diplomatic, strategic, and the regional security situation—are given more prominence. But by far the most important consideration is the relationship between the PLO/PA and Israel.