Matthew Bell

Matthew Bell

Matthew Bell is a Jerusalem-based Middle East reporter. He has been with The World since 2001 and has filed stories from cities across the US and abroad.

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Mixed Views on Palestinian’s UN Recognition Plans

August 15, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment
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Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi discussed the plan for seeking recognition at the United Nations for a state of Palestine within the pre-1967 borders with Israel. (photo: Matthew Bell)

Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi discussed the plan for seeking recognition at the United Nations for a state of Palestine within the pre-1967 borders with Israel. (photo: Matthew Bell)

The Palestinians are gearing up for their plan to go to the United Nations in September to seek recognition as a state.

No one doubts the Palestinians could win broad support at the UN in a vote to recognize the state of Palestine. In fact, they already have.

Back in 1988, the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s chairman, Yasir Arafat proclaimed a Palestinian state. A UN resolution to recognize the move got 104 yes votes. Two countries voted no: Israel and the United States.

But when the Palestinians go to New York in September, they’ll be asking for something different, according to veteran politician Hanan Ashrawi, who spoke to reporters in Ramallah on Sunday. What the Palestinian leadership wants in 2011, she said, is recognition as a state with defined borders. The borders the Palestinians have in mind are the pre-1967 lines that divided Israel from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Arab East Jerusalem.

“We are going to the UN with all options open and we reserve our right to use any means – peaceful and legal and moral and human and responsible – that will guarantee our rights and save them from Israeli unilateralism and illegal measures,” Ashrawi said.

Ashrawi said Palestinian officials are hoping to line up more than 130 votes this time around. The US has said it would veto any resolution on Palestinian statehood. But the prospect of voting against Palestinian self-determination as a wave of uprisings sweep through the Arab world is likely something the Obama administration would prefer to avoid.

Ashrawi said the Palestinians are not seeking to embarrass or confront the United States.

“We’re telling the Americans, the best thing for you to do, at least if you don’t want to vote with us,” Ashrawi said, “if you don’t want to be seen as on the wrong side of the law, isolated with Israel, blocking the rights of one nation, we’re trying to convince them to abstain.”

But that’s probably wishful thinking on the part of the Palestinians. Congress is threatening to cut off vital US funding to the Palestinian Authority if it goes ahead with its plans. And Israel says the Palestinians are playing with fire by undermining the peace process. Still, some Palestinians I spoke with at the fruit and vegetable market in downtown Ramallah said it’s still worth the risk.

Market in Ramallah (photo: Matthew Bell)

One shopper who didn’t want to give her name told me she has high hopes for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. “God willing,” she said, “he will be successful in winning UN approval for the state of Palestine.”

But a mobile phone shop owner named Sultan said he sees the effort as a double-edged sword.

“If the Israelis let things play out at the United Nations,” he said, “it could help Palestinians in the long run. But if Israel uses this as a pretext to create chaos in the Palestinian territories, it could take us back decades.”

Others, like this fabric store owner, said they’re skeptical of what Palestinians could ever achieve in New York.

“This will do nothing for the Palestinian people,” the fabric store owner said. “There have been many resolutions in the past and Israel can do whatever it wants. Even if the resolution wins 130 votes, there are really only two countries that matter, and that’s America and Israel.”

Discussion

5 comments for “Mixed Views on Palestinian’s UN Recognition Plans”

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y6L6FTDBJYFKOHEZCN6BO6ZEGQ dorn

    It is instructive that Matthew Bell did not have a single Israeli
    response or perspective today (Monday 15 August) as he allowed Hana
    Ashrawi to turn truth upside down.

    Ashrawi talked of “Israeli unilateralism”. Yet it is the Palestinian
    Authority that has refused to negotiate. It is the PA that is seeking
    unilateral statehood. Ashrawi asserted the “PA is not seeking to
    confront the US”. Yet it is the PA that has snubbed every single US
    request for negotiations, for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state,
    for conditions of making a pact with Hamas. Why did Bell not state a
    single on of these? He came across as plugging Palestinian propaganda.

    We were told of demands for defined borders – namely the pre-1967 ones.
    But even this is dishonest, as Bell well knows. For the Palestinians
    are refusing to recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people
    behind any borders, but more egregiously demand that descendants of
    Palestinian refugees be resettled in pre-1967 Israel (and not the
    Palestinian state). Bell knows this. He knows that it makes a mockery
    of a two-state solution. Why not a balancing phrase?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y6L6FTDBJYFKOHEZCN6BO6ZEGQ dorn

    The PA officially denies any Jewish connection to Jerusalem. All its
    maps show all of Israel as part of its territory. It names town squares
    and summer youth camps after perpetrators of the worst terror attacks.
    Despite all this, the Palestinian Authority continues to receive
    massive US and European aid, without even any criticism, let alone
    conditions for support. Ironically, promised aid from Arab countries
    has not materialized – to the extent that it has affected payment of
    salaries.

    I appeal to The World to balance this report – and to tell the bottom
    line that Bell well knows: the core issue is Arab recognition of any
    Israel, no matter how small. The real goal of the Palestinian cause has
    always been Israel’s destruction, and never a Palestinian state. Its complete lack of any positive vision has resulted in tragedy for both Jews and Arabs.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y6L6FTDBJYFKOHEZCN6BO6ZEGQ dorn

    How long will it take The World to report that about half of all Israelis are descendants of JEWISH REFUGEES FROM ARAB
    LANDS. Compare how Israel uplifted them with 63 years of cynical Arab
    manipulation of a similar number of Arab refugees. This is especially
    hypocritical as the Arab world started the wars that led to BOTH
    refugee issues.

    Some 900 000 Jewish refugees from Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, … came
    to Israel penniless, but looked forward and rebuilt their lives. They
    looked past 1400 years of dhimmi status – where they were subject to
    periodic pogroms, forced conversions and restricitons that make
    apartheid look like a joke. See Andrew Bostom’s book “The Legacy of
    islamic Antisemitism”.

    There were always significant Jewish communities in Hebron, Safed,
    Jerusalem, … . Hebron had an ancient Jewish community until the 1929
    massacre, in which 67 were killed, and the rest driven out. East
    Jerusalem (now called “Arab East J’lm) had a Jewish majority from the
    1840′s when the first census was taken till the 1920′s, when most Jews
    were driven out.

    As for the Palestinians: a great many (perhaps over 50%) are descended
    from Egyptian and other immigrants who came after the 1880′s, to take
    advantage of Jewish redevelopment. Some, such as the fascist Mufti of
    Jerusalem, were of Bosnian descent. They have no more claim to ancient settlement than the Jews who clung to the land through all the invasions and persecutions.

     Just go back and read Mark Twain’s account of his visit to the Holy
    Land in the 19th century. read the diaries of Christians like James
    Finn, then British consul, who chronicled the suffering of local Jews
    in places like Safed in the 19th century.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MWM52V7VG5ZMENR7DOJMW4YCUA Anthony Aloysious

    Dear All, There are over 150 UN Resolutions on Palestine. There are no UN resolutions or statements by the International Court of Justice that deny the Palestinians claim to East Jerusalem. Moreover the relevant resolutions on refugees speak explicitly about the Palestinian ones who were driven out or lost their homes. Furthermore the Israeli Government has agreed to a two-state solution (as per the Road Map when they promised to end settlements) but are at odds with the European Union and the international community about the need for peace to based on the 1967 borders (a matter that even the US agrees with). God bless.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MWM52V7VG5ZMENR7DOJMW4YCUA Anthony Aloysious

    Dear All, May I respectfully convey that Nurit Peled-Elhanan (reported in the UK Guardian on the 7 August 2011) how Israeli textbooks sadly contain an unfortunate misrepresentation of facts about the Palestinian people. Also the British Authorities – as reported in the UK press 29 May 2009 – demanded Israeli tourism posters on the London Underground not reflecting the Palestinian Territories be removed. The BBC also reported that the advertisements were a mistake.  Both sides in this conflict need to respect international law and ensure respective maps clearly show Israel and Palestine (including East Jerusalem). Thank you.