Palestinians certain to win UN recognition

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

At least 150 countries expected to vote in favor of recognizing Palestine as non-member observer state at General Assembly; U.S., Canada to vote with Israel against resolution, Germany to abstain.

The UN General Assembly is expected on Thursday to pass a historic resolution recognizing Palestine within the 1967 borders as a non-member observer state.

At least 150 countries are expected to vote in favor of the resolution. Israel will suffer a humiliating political defeat and find itself isolated along with the United States, Canada, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and, at best, Germany and the Czech Republic.

As the vote approaches, more and more Western democracies are announcing that they will vote in favor of the resolution. "The situation is very serious. We are going to get hit and be almost completely alone," a senior Foreign Ministry official said.

Eleven members of the European Union have announced their support for the Palestinian move: France, Spain, Cyprus, Portugal, Luxembourg, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Malta, Ireland and Greece. Norway and Switzerland, which are not members of the EU, have also declared their support.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague told Parliament on Wednesday that Britain tended to support the Palestinian bid. But it needed public commitments that the Palestinian Authority would not take advantage of the resolution to act against Israel in the international court in The Hague and that it would commit to immediately renewing peace talks without preconditions.

A source at the Foreign Ministry said Britain had not yet received such assurances but was continuing talks with the Palestinians. The Foreign Ministry believes that if the Palestinians provide the assurances the British are demanding, at least 20 EU countries will vote for the resolution. Germany and the Czech Republic, which had announced they would vote against the move, would then abstain instead.

Meanwhile, the United States is opposing the Palestinian move to the last minute. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Middle East Special Envoy David Hale met yesterday with PA President Mahmoud Abbas at his hotel in New York; they told him of the U.S. opposition and asked him to reconsider.

The General Assembly vote, which will be broadcast live around the globe, is expected to be an unprecedented achievement for the PA and Abbas. In contrast, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are said to understand that the Palestinian victory at the United Nations means an Israeli defeat and a personal defeat for each of them.

The significance of the outcome has not been lost on Jerusalem. While the ruling party in Israel is moving to the right, the international community, including Israel's friends, is moving to the left. They are no longer willing to accept Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

No Israeli leader wants this failure to stick to him. Netanyahu has released no official statement on the matter. Lieberman and Barak, who, ironically, will be in New York today on their way to the Saban Forum in Washington, will duck the cameras. Lieberman prefers not to speak to the General Assembly and has left it to UN ambassador Ron Prosor to face the music alone.

The Foreign Ministry has almost completely ended its efforts to persuade countries to vote against the decision. It has focused on encouraging as many countries as possible to issue statements stressing that the move is merely symbolic and that permanent borders and other issues can only be decided in direct negotiations with Israel.

Now Netanyahu and Lieberman can only do damage control, particularly political damage as far as their voters are concerned, and try to cover up their failures in dealing with the Palestinian issue over the past four years.

The way to do this is by stressing that the Palestinian move is merely technical. A senior Israeli official told a press briefing yesterday that Israel believes the resolution "lacks all significance; only the Security Council can establish a real country."

"This evening there will be a celebration in Ramallah, but on Friday morning there will be no change on the ground," the official said. Only the Security Council can accept a state as a full member of the United Nations.

But exactly 65 years ago, on November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 181, which approved the partition of British Mandatory Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. That night, thousands of Jews took to the streets in celebration. But the next morning, the British Mandate was still there.

Still, the situation did change the next day. Attacks and violence between the local Jews and Arabs.

Beyond international recognition of the Jewish right to a state, the UN resolution launched a process that six months later culminated in the declaration of statehood by Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. The Security Council accepted Israel as a full member of the international body only a year later, in May 1949.

For the Palestinians, Thursday's vote is another step on the road to independence. The diplomatic impasse, the radicalization in Likud and the fact the right is expected to form Israel's next government do not bode well for the peace process. Israelis may only hope that unlike November 29, 1947, the conflict will remain on the diplomatic front and not deteriorate into a third intifada.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/with-palestinians-near-certain-to-win-un-recognition-israel-increasingly-isolated.premium-1.481242#

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

The UN's "Special meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People" is underway - Roger Waters will reportedly give a speech in support of the Palestinians.

Edited November 29, 2012 by wife_of_mahmoud

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Live webcast at the UN site:

http://webtv.un.org/

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Palestinians certain to win recognition as a state

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Palestinians are certain to win U.N. recognition as a state Thursday but success could exact a high price: Israel and the United States warn it could delay hopes of achieving an independent Palestinian state through peace talks with Israel.

The United States, Israel's closest ally, mounted an aggressive campaign to head off the General Assembly vote. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defiantly declared Thursday that the Palestinians would have to back down from long-held positions if they ever hope to gain independence.

Ahead of Thursday's vote, thousands of Palestinians from rival factions celebrated in the streets of the West Bank. Although the initiative will not immediately bring about independence, the Palestinians view it as a historic step in their quest for global recognition.

The United States, Israel's closest ally, mounted an aggressive campaign to head off the General Assembly vote.

In a last-ditch move Wednesday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns made a personal appeal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas promising that President Barack Obama would re-engage as a mediator in 2013 if Abbas abandoned the effort to seek statehood. The Palestinian leader refused, said Abbas aide Saeb Erekat.

With most of the 193 General Assembly member states sympathetic to the Palestinians, the vote is certain to succeed. Several key countries, including France, have recently announced they would support the move to elevate the Palestinians from the status of U.N. observer to nonmember observer state. However, a country's vote in favor of the status change does not automatically imply its individual recognition of a Palestine state, something that must be done bilaterally.

The Palestinians say they need U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the lands Israel captured in 1967, to be able to resume negotiations with Israel. They say global recognition of the 1967 lines as the borders of Palestine is meant to salvage a peace deal, not sabotage it, as Israel claims.

The non-member observer state status could also open the way for possible war crimes charges against the Jewish state at the International Criminal Court.

Netanyahu warned the Palestinians Thursday that they would not win their hoped-for state until they recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland, declare an end to their conflict with the Jewish state and agree to security arrangements that protect Israel.

"The resolution in the U.N. today won't change anything on the ground," Netanyahu declared. "It won't advance the establishment of a Palestinian state, but rather, put it further off."

While Israel argues that Abbas is trying to dictate the outcome of border talks by going to the U.N., the recognition request presented to the world body in fact calls for a quick resumption of negotiations on all core issues of the conflict, including borders.

Netanyahu's predecessors accepted the 1967 lines as a basis for border talks. Netanyahu has rejected the idea, while pressing ahead with Jewish settlement building on war-won land, giving Abbas little incentive to negotiate.

For Abbas, the U.N. bid is crucial if he wants to maintain his leadership and relevance, especially following the recent conflict between his Hamas rivals in Gaza and Israel. The conflict saw the Islamic militant group claim victory and raise its standing in the Arab world, while Abbas' Fatah movement was sidelined and marginalized.

In a departure from previous opposition, the Hamas militant group, which rules the Gaza Strip, said it wouldn't interfere with the U.N. bid, and its supporters joined some of the celebrations Thursday.

In the West Bank city of Hebron, some in a crowd of several thousand raised green Hamas flags, while in the city of Ramallah, senior figures of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups normally opposed to Abbas, addressed the crowd.

"It's the right step in the right direction," Nasser al-Shaer, a former deputy prime minister from Hamas, said of the U.N. bid.

The Palestinians chose the "International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People" for the vote. Before it takes place, there will be a morning of speeches by supporters focusing on the rights of the Palestinians. Abbas is scheduled to speak at that meeting, and again in the afternoon when he will present the case for Palestinian statehood in the General Assembly.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Wednesday that the U.N. vote will not fulfill the goal of independent Palestinian and Israeli states living side by side in peace, which the U.S. strongly supports because that requires direct negotiations.

"We need an environment conducive to that," she told reporters in Washington. "And we've urged both parties to refrain from actions that might in any way make a return to meaningful negotiations that focus on getting to a resolution more difficult."

The U.S. Congress has threatened financial sanctions if the Palestinians improve their status at the United Nations.

Ahead of the vote, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch filed an amendment to a defense bill Wednesday that would eliminate funding for the United Nations if the General Assembly changes Palestine's status.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said that by going to the U.N., the Palestinians violate "both the spirit and the word of signed agreements to solve issues through negotiations," which broke down four years ago.

But Israeli officials appeared to back away from threats of drastic measures if the Palestinians get U.N. approval, with officials suggesting the government would take steps only if the Palestinians use their new status to act against Israel.

Regev, meanwhile, affirmed that Israel is willing to resume talks without preconditions.

U.N. diplomats said they will be listening closely to Abbas' speech to the General Assembly on Thursday afternoon before the vote to see if he makes an offer of fresh negotiations with no strings, which could lead to new talks. The Palestinians have been demanding a freeze on Israeli settlements as a precondition.

As a sign of the importance Israel attaches to the vote, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman flew to New York and was scheduled to meet Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon before the vote.

Unlike the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the General Assembly and the resolution to raise the Palestinian status from an observer to a nonmember observer state only requires a majority vote for approval. To date, 132 countries — over two-thirds of the U.N. member states — have recognized the state of Palestine.

The Palestinians have been courting Western nations, especially the Europeans, seen as critical to enhancing their international standing. A number have announced they will vote "yes" including France, Italy, Spain, Norway, Denmark and Switzerland. Those opposed or abstaining include the U.S., Israel, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia.

The Palestinians turned to the General Assembly after the United States announced it would veto their bid last fall for full U.N. membership until there is a peace deal with Israel.

Following last year's move by the Palestinians to join the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, the U.S. withheld funds from the organization, which amount to 22 percent of its budget. The U.S. also withheld money from the Palestinians.

_____

Associated Press writers Amy Teibel in Jerusalem and Karin Laub in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this story.

http://news.yahoo.com/palestinians-certain-win-recognition-state-052920823.html

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Yes... Hamas announced on Monday that it would back Abbas' move at the UN. Actually, Khaled Mashaal has said it for years - that Hamas will agree to a Palestinian state on the 1967 armistice lines with East Jerusalem as its capital, de facto recognizing Israel. For some reason, Israel and the U.S. seem to be pretending they're surprised...

Israel's big worry isn't Hamas... it's the ICC...

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Yes... Hamas announced on Monday that it would back Abbas' move at the UN. Actually, Khaled Mashaal has said it for years - that Hamas will agree to a Palestinian state on the 1967 armistice lines with East Jerusalem as its capital, de facto recognizing Israel. For some reason, Israel and the U.S. seem to be pretending they're surprised...

Israel's big worry isn't Hamas... it's the ICC...

Is Israel even a signator?

Three of these states—Israel, Sudan and the United States—have informed the UN Secretary General that they no longer intend to become states parties and, as such, have no legal obligations arising from their former representatives' signature of the Statute.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Is Israel even a signator?

Doesn't matter. ICC has jurisdiction over crimes committed in a member state's territory. If it rules a non-member state is guilty, it works in connection with other member states to enforce sanctions or even apprehend suspects... So a case could be brought against Israel for attacks in Palestinian territories, and for the illegal settlements... Mainly it's a nuisance and a bad PR thing for Israel - and makes travel extremely difficult for accused Israeli officials, at least in 190 Interpol countries....

But only a member state can bring a case to the ICC. Hence the hysteria over the move for recognition at the UN, and the repeated attempts by the U.S. (and Britain) to extract promises that the PA will not bring any cases against Israel to the Court.

Edited November 29, 2012 by wife_of_mahmoud

[Golden Gate 530]

Yay for Palestine!!!

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Voting has been completed....

138 in favor

9 opposed

41 abstentions

Edited November 29, 2012 by wife_of_mahmoud

[mawilson 2,133]

"Isolated with the US, Canada and Germany"... gee, that sounds real bad.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Congratulations to Palestine on today's historic vote and being formally recognized as a non-member State to the UN and a State by the international community!

Edited November 29, 2012 by Dr. A ♥ O

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

I've been trying to access the UN's website to find out who voted No, or Yes, or Abstained, but it's down right now probably with so many requests to access the site. While the gesture is largely symbolic the UN has a lot of members that don't have a lot of influence and the votes will tell us a lot more. I know that one power player, France, did announced ahead of time that they were going to vote Yes to formally recognize Palestine as a State.

[mawilson 2,133]

I know that one power player, France, did announced ahead of time that they were going to vote Yes to formally recognize Palestine as a State.

Wouldn't want to have a riot on their hands, with 5-6 million Muslims living there... what a surprise.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

This would be the best Christmas present ever.

[^_^ 5,021]

Wouldn't want to have a riot on their hands, with 5-6 million Muslims living there... what a surprise.

Canada has a similar demographic problem, but they stood with Israel anyway.

The French are just cowards.