While President Mahmoud Abbas encourages nonviolence in pursuit of UN support for Palestinian statehood, stone-throwing young men are reluctant to adopt his peaceful philosophy, CTV's Middle East Bureau Chief Martin Seemungal reports.

Abbas, who spoke to the European Parliament this week, travels to Colombia next week to press undecided members of the UN Security Council to support the Palestinian bid for statehood. That bid is nine votes short, although the United States has threatened to veto the application.

But in Kalandia, a refugee camp between Ramallah and Jerusalem, the appeal for nonviolence appears to be falling on deaf ears.

"The culture of the stone is strong here," Seemungal reports from Kalandia. "Always the symbol of the struggle, the Palestinian David against the powerful Israeili military Goliath -- and it's always had the support of the Palestinian leadership. But not anymore."

Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian leader who is urging young men to leave the stones on the ground, is pragmatic about a peaceful solution. "We tried violent resistance," he says. "We tried armed struggle."

But convincing angry young people in the streets to change their tack is going to be an enormous challenge.

As one young man told Seemungal: " We tried peaceful negotiations for years. The only way to liberate Palestine is armed struggle."

Many stone throwers don't regard their actions as violent, but the Israelis do.

"Stones can kill; stones can injure," says Israeli Defence Forces Capt. Eytan Buchman. "I think you'd be hard pressed to find people that don't call it violence."

As the Palestinians urge youth to drop the stones and march peacefully, Saath adds: "It requires a lot of bravery and patience because you will be hit by violence and you will not respond by violence. It requires determination and it's not less heroic."