The Palestinian Authority is poised to go to the United Nations in September 2011 for the purpose of achieving recognition unilaterally as a state. It is not going to become a UN Member state because the proposal for UN Membership goes to the Security Council first – and the US is expected to veto the Palestinian request.
However, for two years the Palestinians have been pushing an aggressive diplomatic initiative worldwide to obtain the support of governments for their proposed statehood recognition in the UN. So, it is likely a majority of countries represented in the General Assembly will vote in favor of recognizing a Palestinian state in September.
The consequences and repercussions of this recognition are unclear.
However, Israel has threatened to retaliate in unilateral ways of its own if the Palestinian state is recognized unilaterally in the UN in September. Israel’s security forces and the IDF also anticipate violent Palestinian demonstrations in response to the declaration of Palestinian statehood. They are preparing already for the worst case scenario.
Some say that now at the last minute Palestinian Authority chairman Abu Mazen is having cold feet about the UN vote in September. They say he wants to climb down from the tree he is on. For his part Abu Mazen continues to claim he prefers direct negotiations with Israel, but this claim is always attached to completely unacceptable conditions. So it appears the die is cast.
For some time I have believed it was Abu Mazen’s own personal decision to halt bilateral negotiations two years ago and launch the UN statehood program that represented the heart of the present crisis with the Palestinians. But I recently discovered that the problem is not something that started in 2009; it goes back 35 years to 1975 and the establishment of the UN Committee for the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinians.
“General Assembly resolution 3236 (XXII) of 22 November 1974 reaffirmed the “inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in Palestine including (a) the right of self-determination without external interference, (b) the right to national independence and sovereignty.” This right was reconfirmed in General Assembly resolution 169 A (XXXV) of 15 December 1980, which stated that just and lasting peace in the Middle East cannot be established without the attainment of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. The right to self-determination has been spelled out very clearly and consistently in all General Assembly resolutions on Palestine since the time after the 1967 war.”
http://www.i-p-o.org/palestine-sovereignty.htm
“In 1975, by its resolution 3376the United Nations General Assembly established the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, and requested it to recommend a program of implementation to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their inalienable rights to self-determination without external interference, national independence and sovereignty; and to return to their homes and property from which they had been displaced. The Committee's recommendations were endorsed by the Assembly, to which the Committee reports annually. The Assembly established the Special Unit on Palestinian Rights (later redesignated as the Division for Palestinian Rights) as its secretariat and, throughout the years, has gradually expanded the Committee’s mandate.
http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/com.htm
Assisted by the Division for Palestinian Rights, the Committee organizes international meetings and conferences, cooperates and liaises with civil society organizationsworldwide, maintains a publications and information program, and holds each year on 29 November or around that date a special meeting in observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People(29 November).”
The selection of 29 November as the day for international solidarity with the Palestinian people is obviously a slap in Israel’s face. The date is the anniversary of the partition resolution in 1947, over which all Israelis rejoice. But this exceptional date, like the date for Israel’s declaration of independence (Nakba Day) are preserved in Palestinian psychology as days of disaster.
And clearly, these Palestinian approaches to their history are not just frivolous impulses in the Palestinian heartland. They emanate from an authoritative source like the United Nations – and its committee for inalienable Palestinian rights. It is this UN committee which has beaten the drum for four decades in the Palestinian community and promoted independence and sovereignty. And more. Including the refugee right of return. This is where the initiative for Palestinian statehood was born, not the mind of the PA’s chairman Abu Mazen. After 35 years in the hands of the committee, Abu Mazen is just taking the Palestinian statehood idea the last mile.
But Abu Mazen would not be where is now without the decades of the Inalienable Rights Committee’s work.
However, just look at how the committee’s background information about itself begins:
“The question of Palestine was first officially brought before the United Nations General Assembly in April 1947, upon a request by the United Kingdom to place the “Question of Palestine” on the Assembly’s agenda in order for “the Assembly to make recommendations, under Article 10 of the Charter, concerning the future government of Palestine” following the termination of its League of Nations’ Mandate over Palestine. After months of intense deliberations and meetings, the Assembly decided to partition Palestine into two States, one Arab and one Jewish, with a special international régime (corpus separatum) for Jerusalem (resolution 181 (II) of 29 November 1947). Although the independence of the State of Israel was declared on 14 May 1948, the Arab State did not come into being as several wars were fought in the area and the Palestine problem continued to be discussed at the United Nations as part of the larger Middle East conflict or in the context of its refugee or human rights aspects.”
http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/786B5696A2EEC8108525772300757531
“The Arab state did not come into being as several wars were fought in the area…”
This is obviously a complete obfuscation and distortion of the truth. But since 1975 this sort of brazen malicious deceit is precisely what has characterized the UN narrative for the inalienable rights of the Palestinians.
“In its first report submitted to the Security Council in June 1976, the Committee affirmed that the question of Palestine was “at the heart of the Middle East problem” and that no solution could be envisaged without fully taking into account the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people. The Committee urged the Council to promote action for a just solution, taking into account all the powers conferred on it by the Charter of the United Nations. The recommendations of the Committee included a two-phase plan for the return of Palestinians to their homes and property; a timetable for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied territories by 1 June 1977, with the provision, if necessary, of temporary peacekeeping forces to facilitate the process; an end to the establishment of settlements; recognition by Israel of the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the occupied territories pending withdrawal; and endorsement of the inherent right of Palestinians to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty in Palestine. The Committee also expressed the view that the United Nations had the historical duty and responsibility to render all assistance necessary to promote the economic development and prosperity of the future Palestinian entity.”
http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/786B5696A2EEC8108525772300757531
Here again the language of the committee suggests that it is the UN
itself which will grant independence and sovereignty to a conceivable Palestinian state. But this is exceptional. In every other case where a state has become a UN Member it has entered the organization with sovereignty and independence already in its possession. But for the Palestinian cause the UN bends over backwards and twists its own procedures out of shape for the purpose of accommodating these people.
“The question of Palestine refugees is a critical element of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Its fair and just resolution on the basis of General Assembly resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 1948 will be an essential prerequisite for Palestinian-Israeli as well as regional peace. The Committee considers that a durable solution to the Palestine refugee problem can only be achieved in the context of the inalienable right of return to the homes and property from which the Palestinians have been displaced over the past decades. The Committee is of the view that justice for Palestine refugees and the Palestinian people as a whole also encompasses fair recompense and recourse for the wrongs inflicted upon them under occupation. The inherent vulnerability of the refugees and the dire conditions of their exile call for a just and lasting solution anchored in the principles of international law and the lessons drawn from successful examples of conflict resolution in other parts of the world. The various refugee resettlement and compensation schemes advanced over the years, as well as the hard work undertaken by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in providing assistance and care for the refugees were always meant as interim measures, not as substitutes for the right of return.”
http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/786B5696A2EEC8108525772300757531
The committee’s advocating the Palestinian refugee right of return is perhaps its clearest and most salient statement of hatred for Israel and its desire to destroy the country, There are millions of descendants of the original 1948 refugees in the various countries of the Arab world today. Admitting them back to Israel, where the homes their forebears abandoned no longer exist is a formula for disaster. Israel’s social fabric would be torn to shreds and the country would be immersed in chaos. This of course is what the UN Palestine committee wants.
The information on the long UN web page contains more data about the committee’s positions on Palestinian rights and Palestinian justice. Remarkably these things seem to come right out of the mouths of the Palestinian Authority leadership.
The UN committee’s propaganda and other activities for the promotion of Palestinian independence and sovereignty and the right of return represent the actual foundation and back up support for the present Palestinian Authority initiative to achieve UN recognition of a Palestinian state in the UN in September. And it has been in operation for 35 years.