What is Happening with the United Nations and the Palestinians?
By Luis Fleischman on 11/04/2011 @ 12:34 PM
The Palestinian Authority applied for a statehood bid at the United Nations that is currently being discussed by the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), the only body with the authority to make such a bid into a legally binding fact. The 15-member Security Council is currently divided with six countries supporting the Palestinian state, six opposing and three undecided. The United States already announced they would veto it; however, it would be better if as many countries as possible support the in order that the U.S. and Israel are not left politically isolated. If the UNSC rejects the bid (which it will) the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) can take a vote and at which time it will likely be passed, resulting in the Palestinians obtaining an upgraded status (similar to the Vatican). Should that occur, the Palestinians could appeal to the International Criminal Court and make the lives of some Israelis difficult.
Why Did the Palestinian Authority Decide to go to the United Nations? The Palestinians decided to go to the U.N. after having refused to negotiate with Israel for more than a year. Rather than negotiating without preconditions as the U.S. and Israel requested, they decided to appeal to the international community in order to bypass negotiations and legally obtain a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders. This request presents a problem as it demands recognition of a final border without the benefit of negotiations with Israel. Additionally, Palestinian leaders have voiced their refusal to relinquish their demand that Palestinians and their descendants be granted Israeli citizenship. This scenario could be extremely dangerous to the survival of Israel, as it requires that five million Palestinians become Israelis. It is reasonable to assume that if Israel accepts this demand, Palestinians and Arabs will intimidate their descendants to become citizens of Israel, thus destroying Israel‘s Jewish majority by demographic means. For that reason the government of Israel and the American Jewish community was mobilized.
How did the of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County’s JCRC Respond? The JCRC has supported the Israeli government in its attempt to oppose this step on the grounds that it undermines negotiations. It proposed that a Palestinian state be established along the 1967 lines with no land swaps; without giving up the “right of return” of the Palestinians to Israel proper. Along with other South Florida JCRC’s and the Anti-Defamation League, our JCRC was very active in coordinating meetings with foreign consuls. We met or spoke with the consuls of Great Britain, France, Chile, Ecuador, Haiti, Germany, Guatemala, Antigua and Barbuda and Jamaica. Our colleagues with the American Jewish Committee separately reached out to a number of other foreign representatives. In these conversations, JCRC reminded foreign representatives of previous concessions made by Israelis, which were rejected by the Palestinians. (Note that all of these prior concessions offered to divide Jerusalem; to allow joint administration of holy places including the Temple Mount; and to return most territories in the West Bank.) JCRC also told of the inadmissibility of the “right of return” of Palestinian refugees; the problem of Hamas’ control of Gaza; and the dangerous anti-Israeli rhetoric of Palestinian leaders and educators. JCRC stressed the need for foreign governments to understand not only Israel’s security needs but also the international defamation of Israel, and the special relation of world Jewry to the State of Israel.
The Impact of the Palestinian Bid The European response to the Palestinian bid may have major effect. Although French president Nicolas Sarkozy supported an upgrade of status for the Palestinians, he opposed the immediate creation of a Palestinian state. Sarkozy supported a Palestinian state on pre-67 borders but with land swaps to be negotiated between the parties. France’s foreign minister Alain Juppe declared that, “A Palestinian state for the Palestinians and Israel is the State of the Jewish nation.” Likewise, the “Quartet” (composed by the U.S, the European Union, Russia and the U.N.) called for the renewal of negotiations without preconditions. Spain, whose government is led a by a left wing coalition that supports the Palestinian cause, delivered a message to the United Nations through its foreign minister Trinidad Jimenez, who underscored Spain’s commitment to a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian peace that would result in two states, secure borders and the resettlement of Palestinian refugees outside the Jewish state. Palestinians have so far failed to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, and their insistence on the return of refugees and their descendants raises great concern. Spain’s statement is a sign of pressure on the Palestinians to reverse that position. In private conversations, the JCRC suggested the national Jewish leadership in the U.S. begin a campaign among countries that support a Palestinian state to encourage them to follow Spain’s lead.
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