UN’s Admission Committee Split Over Palestinian State Bid

Palestine 194

UN Admission Committee on Thursday announced that it has been unable to agree on whether to recommend the admission of Palestine as the 194th state or not, a move that comes a week after the UNESCO assembly was able to agree on the theme and received the state of Palestinians as full member of the organization, causing the United States to cut off the support for UNESCO, which is some 22 percent of the general funds of the world body. The main objection to the Palestinian bid was formulated by the American delegation, which said that the latest rocket fires into Israeli territory showed that Palestinians are not a nation of peace loving people.

The uncertainty of the Admission Committee comes one day before the UN Security Council is expected to vote on Palestinian statehood. In order for Palestinians to have a state of their own recognized by the UN, the Security Council should cast at least nine votes in favor. In that case the United States, which has always stated its opposition to the Palestinian bid, would exercise its veto.

It would seem that the vote on Friday does not come as a surprise for anyone, since the American delegation has already managed to enlist the support of nine of the members in the Security Council, who will vote against the Palestinian request. A failure to gather these votes would have placed the United States in the position to veto, thus damaging its relations and policies in the Middle East.

The debate on whether the Palestinians are or not a peace loving nation were tough, as the Americans argued that Hamas is leading 40 percent of the Palestinian population and it is considered a terrorist organization, which means that the Palestinians are not committed to peace.

On the other hand, the countries which supported the Palestinian bid argued that the Palestinian Authority committed itself to peace agreements with Israel and even started peace talks, thus proving its determination to fight for peace.

The report is to be presented to the Security Council on Friday and it is expected to recommend the Palestinians to continue their efforts to meet the requirements of the UN Charter IV, which is about statehood and about the fact that all states that adhere to the UN must be peace loving nations.

The report drafted by the Admission Committee also recommends the Palestinians to continue their efforts to resume peace talks with Israel, and to reach an agreement on security of Israel and the recognition of the Jewish state as such. The committee is to say that the self-determination of the Palestinians must take into account the right of Israel to exist as a state of the Jewish people.

It would seem that the Palestinians have already come to terms to the vote on Friday and have engaged in negotiations to improve their status as UN observers. It is expected that this new attempt be met with the same opposition by the United States, which remain adamant that the only way to Palestinian statehood is by negotiations with Israel.

The entire matter of the Palestinian state revolves around the security guarantees Israel is demanding in order to agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state. Israel is preoccupied that a Palestinian state could become the missile launching pad of the enemy nations around it.

It is for that reason, Benyamin Netanyahu explained, that Israel is building settlements in the West Bank, considering them as the first line of defense.

Israel also wants to make sure that all Palestinians recognize its right to exist as a state of the Jews, something Hamas has never admitted. Palestinians have a hard time admitting that Israel is the state of the Jews, because that would complicate the matter of the Palestinian refugees, who had to flee their lands and would now face the perspective of never seeing their lands again.

Palestinians on the other hand demand that Israel stop the building of settlements in the West Bank considering that the process slowly fragments the land so a point where it will no longer be possible to establish a state on it.