On September 23, 2011, Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, officially submitted a request to the United Nations Security Council (UN SC) for recognition of a Palestinian statehood, and Palestine’s ability to get full United Nations (UN) membership. When Abbas entered the UN General Assembly, he received a standing ovation from multiple UN delegates. One country that was not applauding Palestine in their attempt at UN recognition of a Palestinian state was Israel. If Palestine forms their own state, separate from Israel, then Israel will have to give back some of its land.
On Friday September 30, 2011, Security Council President for September,
(Presidents change monthly) Lebanese UN Ambassador, Nawaf Salam, announced that
the UN was going to transfer the Palestinian application to a committee of experts to study the bid. The decision was made after the UN convened twice to debate and discuss the Palestinian bid. Once a majority in the committee has found that Palestine has fulfilled the UN charter’s requirements, the committee will then send the application back to the full Security Council for a vote. Once back at the Security Council, Palestine will need nine out of 15 temporary or permanent votes in their favor and no vetoes from the five permanent members.
Israel is retaliating by submitting their own document to the UN SC, where the
Israeli Foreign Ministry cites that Palestine has failed to hold national or local elections. This makes Palestine ineligible and poorly equipped for the independent statehood according to UN SC charter requirements. Another tactic Israel is using is sending envoys to Bosnia and Herzegovina (one country), and Colombia in hopes of persuading these temporary members to vote against the Palestinian bid. These two countries along with Portugal are all undecided on their position. All three are part of the 15 nations compromising the UN SC. For a veto, Israel needs the five permanent members of the Security Council—China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States—to vote against the resolution, therefore blocking it. The temporary or non-permanent members are Portugal, South Africa, Germany, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Gabon, Colombia, Brazil, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Palestine will also send their top officials to Bosnia and Herzegovina. President
Abbas will visit Portugal, Columbia, Honduras and the Dominican Republic in October.
On October 6, Abbas also addressed the European Parliament.
Currently Palestine is a nonvoting observer “entity”. The General Assembly can
still vote to upgrade the status of Palestinians to permanent observer “state”. This new status would be identical to the Vatican’s standing at the UN.
An unlikely source who opposes the Palestinian statehood is Hamas, the
Palestinian organization the controls Gaza. Hamas warned President Abbas, that in
making the request for the statehood, Hamas would begin negotiations with Israel.
Hamas claims these negotiations would “deprive the Palestinian people from their right to come back to their homeland.”
The United States has announced their support of Israel and has stated that they
will use their veto if forced to. The US would prefer to not use their veto, since they are worried about the amount of backlash from the Middle East that they will receive.
The Palestinian National Authority’s (PNA) foreign minister, Reyad al-Malki,
is outraged that the United States did not notify Palestine that their usual budget of $200 million would not be transferred as usual to the PNA budget. This is because U.S.
Congress blocked the money in response to Palestine’s application. On Sunday, October 4, 2011, Nabil al-Arabi, the head of the Arab League announced, that they would offer financial assistance to the Palestinians in place of the United States. The United States aid would have benefitted food aid, health care, and state building efforts.
Why will Palestine not negotiate with Israel? Because Palestine claims that they
have been there and done that. Unless Israel halts their settlement activity in the West Bank and accepts the 1967 lines, than Palestine refuses to talk or negotiate. The 1967 lines have Palestine occupying East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which Palestine lost in the 1967 war. Palestine wants these lands back in there and not in Israel’s possession so they can have them in part of their Palestinian state. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has said “Palestinians should first make peace with Israel and then get their state,” but without doing this they are looking for a “state without peace.” Netanyahu thinks the only way to achieve peace is through a two-state solution that recognizes Israel as a Jewish state. Netanyahu has also said that if Palestine agrees to this, than Israel will be the first to recognize the Palestinian statehood.
Only time will tell if Palestine is successful in their bid, or if Israel who
successfully won the West Bank and East Jerusalem, is able to keep Palestine from their statehood.