JERUSALEM — Israel is preparing security forces and diplomatic and legal responses for a planned Palestinian bid for admission as a state to the United Nations this month, but officials say they do not expect a major eruption of unrest.

Meanwhile, Palestinians hoping to secure a seat at the United Nations already have the chair.

Palestinian activists said Monday they would take the chair on an international tour to dramatize the Palestinian Authority's quest for U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state.

The wooden chair is covered with embroidered blue upholstery featuring a Palestinian flag and the word "Palestine."

It will be shown to diplomats in countries with influence at the U.N., including Britain, Russia and Lebanon, this month's rotating Security Council president. The chair's final stop is the U.N.

Activist Waled Nazzar says the chair symbolizes the Palestinians' conviction that they deserve U.N. membership.

Israel and the United States oppose the Palestinian statehood bid, saying a state must be established through negotiations.

A senior official involved in shaping the Israeli response said the government was resigned to the U.N. General Assembly's endorsement of the move in late September.

"We're aware that we have very little ability to prevent it because it's the U.N., so we have to learn to live with it," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He described the United Nations as a body with an automatic anti-Israeli majority.

The official said Israel was preparing for fallout from the U.N. vote on three fronts: in the streets of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and possibly on Israel's borders; in the diplomatic arena; and in international forums.

On the ground, Israeli military and police forces are preparing for what the official called a "worst-case scenario" in which masses of Palestinian protesters march on Israeli checkpoints and West Bank settlements, and possibly on the country's borders. Palestinians used such tactics in May, on the anniversary of Israel's establishment, and in June, to mark the anniversary of the 1967 Middle East war, drawing deadly Israeli gunfire.

The police and army have stocked up on nonlethal crowd-control equipment and carried out drills to prepare for mass popular protests, and border units have been readied for possible marches to Israel's frontiers, security officials said. The army has trained rapid-response teams at Israeli settlements on how to deal with approaching Palestinian crowds.

Despite the preparations, the prevalent official assessment is that the U.N. vote will not trigger a major eruption of Palestinian unrest. Part of that expectation stems from plans by the Palestinian Authority to limit celebrations to the West Bank areas it controls and prevent confrontations with Israeli forces and settlers that could turn violent.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for peaceful demonstrations, and he has ruled out a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israel.