Mahmoud Abbas, who was 12 years old when the U.N. voted in 1947 to partition Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. Abbas’ predecessors, the Palestinian leaders of that earlier generation, rejected the partition plan, which envisaged a state on 44 per cent of the land. So yesterday Friday Sept 23rd, the Palestinian president asked the 66th session of the U.N. to bless a Palestinian State on a terrain about half the size. Its been 44 years since Israel took Palestine, the West Bank from Jordan and Gaza from Egypt.
The Palestinian people are “long overdue” in their quest for an independent state, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday. And I support also the statehood of Palestinians; an independent, sovereign state of Palestine. It has been long overdue,” Ban told reporters in Canberra.
There are two routes that Mr. Abbas is considering at the United Nations. His preference is to begin by applying through the 15-member Security Council for full membership. The United States has vowed to use its veto there.
If that failed, he could then go directly to the 193-member General Assembly, where there is no veto and a pro-Palestinian majority. Around 140 countries are likely to support a Palestinian bid for statehood. The General Assembly cannot grant United Nations membership to Palestine. It can only declare it to be an “observer state”. But the key word is “state,” because that would allow it to join a host of international agencies and treaty groups, including the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, Unesco and others.
Once admitted to the U.N. – a foregone conclusion — Palestine would join all international legal forums. Palestinians would then be entitled to bring cases against Israeli officials, perhaps for actions related to building West Bank settlements viewed as illegal. This issue worries the Israelis perhaps most of all, as 500,000 Israeli’s could find themselves trespassing.
A Palestinian decision to shift its statehood quest toward international legal and political pressure on Israel, combined with Israeli fear and truculence at a time of regional upheaval, has many predicting disaster. After after the storming of Israel’s Cairo embassy, and the expulsion of its ambassador from Turkey, the Arab spring is creating political opportunity for Israels enemies.
“Israel is already facing hostility from Egypt, Turkey and Gaza,” a senior Western diplomat said. “It will react to a Palestinian statehood bid with punitive measures in the West Bank. Congress will probably cut off aid to the Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority could collapse. We’re watching a potential train wreck.”
American diplomats were here last week warning Mr. Abbas of unforeseen consequences from his statehood bid. Palestinians have nothing to lose and they will be heading to the UN in a non-reversible move,” Abbas said. There is no good outcome for Israel. America’s threat to veto the bid at the Security Council puts it on the side of Israel against the wishes of 140 U.N. members.
The tactics of making Palestinians the victims, and Israel the villain, are the same tactics that allowed Britain and France to throw Czechoslovakia under a German bus in September 1938, in the policy of appeasement. Again Germany and France and Britain are giving silent approval to this division of land.
Meanwhile the world forgets, God says Joel 3 v 2 I will gather the armies of the world into the valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will judge them for harming my people, my special possession, for scattering my people Israel, among the nations, and for dividing up my land.
